“’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.” Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV
Since I wrote the last 2 days about changing how we react to people, I thought that this would be a good verse to end with. Anger can be very destructive but it can also be productive. When a person allows anger to take over how they feel most of the time, or allow it to direct their other actions and interactions with those they are not angry with, it can be labeled as being destructive.
There are so many incidents in history where a person’s unwillingness to let go of anger has caused trauma, heartbreak, destruction and death to others who were not even involved with that person. People who are angry at everyone for whatever reason, usually don’t take their anger out on just one person, they lash out everywhere and at everyone.
Our verse for today instructs us to not sin when we are angry. How do we do that? When we feel anger, we have a choice. We can either let that anger build up inside of us and have it come out sideways, as I like to say, or we can address the source of the anger and deal with the problem. Keeping anger inside will simply eat you alive and do no one any good. When we keep anger inside and it builds then we have the possibility of sinning. Lashing out in anger with words or physical acts are some of the ways that we can sin.
The next part of the verse says to not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Obviously we cannot control the sun, so the part we can control is how we handle the anger. Again, being willing to deal with the problem head on and address the issue helps to defuse the anger. This needs to be done appropriately and without sinning, but when we do this we reduce the probability of sinning greatly.
The last part of the verse gives us a reason to take care of our feeling of anger and that is so the devil does not gain a foothold. What is a foothold? It is defined as a secure position especially a firm basis for further progress. So when the devil gains a foothold in our lives, he is establishing a firm basis that he is able to use to gain control of us.
Here’s an example, a person finds out that one of their friends lied to them. They are angry and don’t deal with the friend, instead they ignore the friend or worse call the friend names on social media. However, since they have not actually gone to the friend and talked about the situation, the hurt continues to build along with the anger. It takes them a while, but they are able to finally talk with their friend and work out the issue. You would think that the anger would be gone now, but because it took a while, that anger was not dealt with and started to grow inside of the person. The next time the friend does anything wrong, the person is immediately thrown back into that emotional state from before and the anger over this situation builds very quickly and this time is more intense. The devil tells the person that they are not able to trust the friend, even if the situation is completely different. The devil has a foothold on the person and it will take a while for the person to break free.
The devil will use any foothold he can get to try and keep us from doing God’s will. Let’s not give him any more leverage than he had when we were not saved yet. Is there any anger you need to deal with? Have you “stuffed” feelings deep down inside? Talk to God about it, He will help you to deal with them and break free from the footholds that the devil has on you.