Our God is Slow to Anger
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
James 1:19-20
We are currently in a short series on studying Exodus 34:6 and the character of God revealed through this Scripture: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
For more in depth guidance, we encourage you to check out the Bible Project’s series on the Character of God that also focuses on Exodus 34.
Also, if you missed any of the previous weeks in the series, you can find them here: week one, week two & week three.
This week we focus on how God is slow to anger and how we too can learn to control the anger that rises up in us when we feel something has gone wrong. Have some paper and crayons, colored pencils or markers ready for a simple exercise to see the effects of anger.
Devotion: Our God is Slow to Anger
Gather your family and read Exodus 34:6. Highlight the phrase slow to anger. What do you think can make God angry? (Let your children answer) What about you? What makes you angry?
As you think about that, let’s all do something creative: take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Now, draw yourself two times, once on each side of the paper. So, thinking about something that makes you a little bit angry, pick a color and draw how you think that angry feeling looks on one side of the paper. Then, do the same on the other side of the paper with something that makes you feel really angry. What does that look like?
Oh boy, that’s a big feeling of anger. It looks like it may even spill off the page! When we get really angry, it can kinda get that way, right? It can get out of control and sometimes we do things that are not kind. Sometimes, our anger gets so big it spills out and can affect others that make them feel bad or sad or hurt. What are some of these behaviors? (let your children answer). Right, we can do things that are hurtful or mean to ourselves or others, even when we don’t want to.
What do we do, then, when we start to feel really angry? Let’s look at Exodus 34 again, what does it say about God besides being slow to anger? Right, gracious and compassionate, abounding in love and faithfulness. I think that all these things go together. So, by remembering to be compassionate, gracious, loving and faithful helps us also to not get angry really quickly. What do you think that looks like when you are actually starting to feel angry? (ie. Believing that other people are not trying to be mean, forgiving quickly, not blaming others)
The Bible also gives us some good ideas in James 1:19 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” It says we should be quick to do what? Yes, listen. Why do you think that is so important? (it is loving and brings us closer to the person, rather than pushing that person away). What about being slow to speak and become angry? How do you think you can try and slow down when you start to feel angry? (maybe take a walk, take deep breaths, tell someone that you are feeling angry, exercise, listen to music, etc). Great! We now have some ways to help us not get too angry. Let’s also remember to ask God to help us, we can pray now and do that! End with a short prayer, thanking God for His help, that He is slow to anger and that we can also be slow to anger.