ANGER- THE LETHAL KILLER. Many a person is locked up behind prison walls because they let their anger control them, rather than controlling their anger. Many a marriage has come apart because anger got out of hand. Many a child has parted ways with other brothers or sisters or parents, due to anger. Many a person has been handicapped by sickness and disease, because anger was never dealt with, but buried. Many a person will not make it to heaven because they allowed low-level anger at God take them to their grave. Love brings people together, but anger can tear it apart in just a few seconds. Some believe anger is a “normal” emotion. God might take issue with that. Righteous anger - God has no problem with. Unrighteous anger - God is not for. Unrighteous anger is a form of emotional and spiritual cancer. It’s sole purpose is to destroy, one way or the other. Righteous anger God is for. When someone hurts a loved one of ours for no good reason, righteous anger kicks in and we want that person corrected, don’t we? When evil triumphs over good, righteous anger is triggered, and when possible, we want evil stopped so righteousness can reign. Yet Of all the emotions we can have, God tells us that anger is the one emotion that gives the devil not only a generous invite, but an OPEN DOOR to step into our house and devour us in one way or another, if we don’t close that door quickly. Allow me to say that just a little differently, to make sure the point is clearly made. There is no place else in the entire Bible that tells us that we give Satan not only an invite, but we open up the door for him to step into our temple and devour us in one way or another, if we don’t deal with our anger quickly and wisely. We find this warning in Ephesians 4:26-27: In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (NIV Translation) Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. (NKJV Translation) Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. (RS Translation) If you are angry, don’t sin by nursing your grudge. Don’t let the sun go down with you still angry – get over it quickly; for when you are angry you give a mighty foothold to the devil. (Living Bible Paraphrase Translation) Let’s dissect this scripture passage to make certain we know what God is telling us in it. Most importantly, God is telling us that when we are angered, WE ARE UNWISE TO SIN. Anger tempts us to strike back; get even; be vindicated; make the one who angered us pay for their wrongdoing. This is where God says to restrain ourselves, because the action we take against the one who is angering us will mostly likely be sin if we don’t filter it first through God’s counsel. How many of us have learned to go to God first and ask Him what we’re to do about the one (or the situation) who has angered us? Doing so will keep us from sinning, most likely. God’s counsel, if we’re willing to listen to it and obey it, will never result in our sinning when we’re angered. Without seeking God’s counsel first -- almost always, our action against the one who has angered us will result in us sinning, and when that happens, we can expect demons to be looking for a way to get a foothold.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 12:54:42 +0000
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