“And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gave me a kid, that might make merry with my friends.”

Basically the older son was furious with his father because dad never gave him a party! Anger does that to a person. It distorts everything. This older son had a quite a distorted view of the situation as well as distorted view of himself. You and I need to be very careful never to allow anger to consume us. Life is unfair and sometimes people are unkind and unjust. Even in times that anger is warranted, it is never to be without limitations in amount and duration (Ephesians 4:26). I think of the dear father in this account. He had one son who insulted him and wasted his inheritance because of poor choices. On the other hand he had another son who insulted him by wasting the fellowship and friendship of the father because of his anger issues.

For today: May the Lord help us to guard against sinful anger. It can burn very suddenly and always has devastating results.