“And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day.” – 2 Samuel 6:8
King David had his people transport the Ark of the Covenant in ways that disobeyed God’s clear guidance. Ways that failed to respect God’s holiness. Unfortunately, a well-meaning man named Uzzah paid the ultimate price for David’s error. What was David’s first response to this tragedy? He got angry even though it was his own fault. Just another way that King David is like us.
After all, what’s our first reaction when our disobedience to God results in obvious and disastrous consequences? We usually get mad! We get mad because God sometimes makes us feel the consequences for our bad decisions. We get mad because our good idea didn’t turn out to be so good after all. Our pride is wounded. Our reputation is diminished. We’re embarrassed. We look to blame others. We look to blame God. We look to blame anyone other than ourselves. Our first response is seldom humble introspection or sorrow for our sins or mistakes.
We need to reprogram ourselves. The Holy Spirit living in every believer makes that possible. We don’t have to default to anger. We can, with God’s help, learn to default to humility, self-control, honest reflection, and genuine sorrow. As we grow closer to Jesus, these things will supernaturally come out of us. But it begins with realizing that our default instinct, like David’s, is wrong. Don’t get mad, #FollowJesus
Let’s all try to grow past that. While it would be ideal if followers of Jesus never sinned or made foolish choices.