Devotionals for God’s Family – 1

Ephesians 4:26–27 (NLT): And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Are you an angry person? Maybe not.

Let me ask this differently, what makes you angry? Most people when asked what makes them angry begin to feel slivers of anger because of things they know. It seems that what makes us angry are things that are not finished yet. Justice has not been served or an offense is not rectified.

Sometimes we are angry because of certain things that keep happening over and over again.

When the Bible says that we should not give the devil a foothold, it means that we should not allow the devil a way in to our heart to mess things up.

That is why it is important to answer the question, what makes us angry. In answering the question we can close the door to the devil having easy access to our heart.

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT): Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

What does it mean for the devil to have a foothold?

Exactly how does the devil get a foothold in our anger? Because God has been angry, did the devil get a foothold in Him? Nope.

Let me show that God does get angry.

Deuteronomy 3:26 (NLT):  “But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. ‘That’s enough!’ he declared. ‘Speak of it no more.’”

The Bible shows that God does get angry and anyone who teaches that the Lord doesn’t get angry is mistaken. So, what is the difference between his anger and ours.

Here is the first thought. If God does get angry then there is nothing evil about anger. Which means anger is not a sin. God has no sin in Him and He has anger, therefore anger is not sin. God can be angry and not sinful, so can you, but under certain conditions.

God is Lord of all. He is our King and Ruler. He is Creator and sovereign. That means He has a plan and a will, His anger most often rises when there is rebellion against His will. And 9 times out of 10, our anger is the same. Except, its not God’s will that we get angry about, it is our own.

Now, you can begin to see how our anger can be a huge stumbling block and ultimately leads to the devil working in us.

I wish I could say to you that all my anger of the past was the rebellion of others against the will of God. I would feel so righteous if that was the case.

I could see me driving down the road and someone cuts me off trying to get into my lane. I could call down the angels of heaven because that person is thwarting the will of God (David) from moving forward the way it should.

I need to get from point “A” to point “B” because I am on a mission from God. I have His authority and power so get out of my way!

Meanwhile, in the other car cutting me off in my lane is a person that is “righteously” moving into my lane because they too are on a mission from God. Oh no, who is right? Or, who has the right of way? Neither…and both.

Here is the second thought about anger. The foothold of the devil always attempts to elevate an offended sense of self. He is winning over the hearts of so many today. So many have bought into the notion that it is beneficial to hold on to offenses to maintain identity. We have gone so far in our day that we are creating organizations based on offenses. We create goals and objectives based on offenses.

The devil just loves this.

As a Believer in Jesus Christ, you gave up your right to being offended when you took His identity. We do not look at this world through the lens of offenses anymore, we look through the lens of love. Jesus has overcome all that has ever offended us in the past. He gave to us a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV): And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Listen angry person. If you profess Jesus as Your Savior, then let Him save you. You do not have to be an angry person anymore. Why carry that around. Do you think you owe to someone or some way of life to be angry? Has it helped your heart or your health to walk in your anger?

If Jesus is as strong as He says He is, then give the anger away to Him and ask Him to give you a heart of flesh rather than stone. Ask Him to give you eyes that see love rather than hate. Stay committed to your goals and objectives; but do it in love and watch what happens.

Lord, thank You that You have the power to change my heart. I can really lay my offenses down and hand them over to You. God, I can be angry, but that anger hanging around in me is very unsafe. Help me to lay all of that on you. Lord, Your anger is the only anger that leads to good things. My anger is dangerous and can control me and change me. With a world of offenses begging my allegiance, please protect my heart and help me to see what You see and to stay on a path of health and vitality in the Holy Spirit.

Devotionals for God’s Family – 2

What do you do when you are angry?

There is a world full of stuff that people do. In light of this I want to share with you three ways that all people deal with their anger. Four really, but three that are extremely unhealthy. Each of us will find ourselves in one or more of these categories. And as much as I don’t like to be categorized, maybe this would be good for a sense of clarity.

One of the worst things that I can imagine happening is on the last day, thinking that all along everybody had problems that were so cumbersome for me to navigate through life, only to find out that I was the one with the problem and I was the one who was cumbersome to others.

So, every now and again a little dose of clarity is good. A little measure of evaluation will help the soul.

1. The first thing we do is we turn our anger inward. We push it into the recesses of our soul. We act out our anger inwardly through conversations that aren’t even real. We seethe and fantasize about the dumbest of things. In our minds, we paint scenarios that are fictitious and respond to them emotionally as though they are real. We have dialogues with people who aren’t even present. We make believe we are solving things and the only thing that we are really doing is building a stronger case against a person who can’t even legitimately talk back to us.

This behavior actually makes our anger worse and we become physically ill because of the torqueing and twisting of our mind and soul. We will withdraw from others and make personal vows and rules that diminish our ability to give and receive love with everyone, not just the person we are angry at.

Here is what God says about this kind of behavior.

Hebrews 12:12-15 “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…”

A straight path is what I call, straight talk. Striving for peace means being willing to have a conversation with a real person to work out the brokenness. Otherwise we simply live in a fantasy world.

2. The second thing that we do with our anger instead of pointing the anger at ourselves, pushing it into the coves of our own heart, is to intentionally direct our anger at poor innocent souls. Somewhere along the journey of life we have come to the conclusion that I am the way that I am, and I am going to vent my anger on whatever unfortunate soul that happens along my inglorious path.

“Well, if I have had a bad day – the rest of humanity is going to have a bad day too. The best thing that you can do is to take a wide berth around me.” You can send out warning flares and sirens with big sighs and huffs. You can bang things and drop pots and pans. You can slam doors and use CAPITAL LETTERS IN COORESPONDANCE.

If someone pushes you over the edge, then they get the fullness of the wrath of ____________ ____________ _________ (use your full birth name in the space provided.)

Esther 3:5-6 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai’s nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes.

Look at Haman’s idiocy. Here is his thought process, I am enraged at Mordecai, so I am going to leave a swath of annihilation in my path and I am going to pour it out on his entire race.

And that my friend is how this kind of anger works. Because of pride and arrogance, a person reserves the right to bludgeon whoever keeps them from doing exactly what they want to do.

James 1:20-21 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

Oh friend, lay down that anger. Ask God to help you get rid of it. Let no trace of that anger have a place in your heart. Do not try to subdue your anger, get rid of the anger. Look for a different way to deal with anger.

Subduing your anger is like trying to cuddle with a skunk. That animal has to be put far from you unless you want the scent of a skunk on you.

Next time we will look at two other ways we try to unsuccessfully deal with our anger.

For our conclusion today, the best place to start in dealing with anger is to admit that you are angry and then ask for help from the Lord in getting rid of your angry ways.

Lord, I confess that I have been dealing with anger in very unsuccessful ways. I have been treating my own soul like a trash can. I have been storing trash in my soul and trying to live productively, please forgive me. Lord, it has come to my attention that I have also been treating other people like a trash can and dumping unto them all of my own trash. Please forgive me for this too. Lord, I do not want to be an angry person. I ask you to help me and change my heart. Thank You Jesus for Your power over my anger.       

Devotionals for God’s Family – 3

3. Ok friends, here is the third way that we try to unsuccessfully deal with our anger. Anger is a type of pain. God never intended for us to be angry and because of that it is not an intended normal way of life. Now, for some it is, but by God’s design it isn’t.

In our souls, we are going to consciously or unconsciously look for a way to off load the anger. This is the reason we are told from scripture to do something healthy with our anger before the sun goes down…

Ephesians 4:26–27 (ESV): Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

…because the anger is toxic to the things that God is building in our life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit cannot grow in you if there is anger that you are holding onto.  

James 1:20 (ESV): for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

So, when we have anger in our being, we will without even thinking about it, look for a way to numb the pain of the anger. We zone out or anesthetize our painful anger. Just about every kind of activity or substance on earth has been used to numb our anger. It doesn’t work, the anger is waiting for you as soon as you are met by the circumstance that brought the anger in the first place.

So once again we are faced with the situation that produced the anger and then the numbing behavior to cope with it. And off we go for another trip around the block. It certainly is a vicious circle. The best thing to do is admit the anger and do something constructive about it. Please tell someone about the anger and start with your Father in heaven who cares for you.

4. The best thing you can do with the anger is to first admit that it is there and then immediately ask the Lord to protect the relationship where the anger exists. As we know the core objective of the enemy is to kill, steal and destroy. (John 10:10) So, to the devil, when a relationship falls apart because of anger he is happy.

Anger is his most effective tool because there are usually two people involved. For the amount on time and energy he has to expend, he can violate two people instead of one. He can plant one seed and bear twice the fruit.

This is why I would say to you to honor and protect the relationship if you can. So, often in anger we say things that burn bridges in our relationships. Do everything in your power to make the relationship off limits for discussion in the moments of anger.

Do not leverage the relationship. Do not threaten another person with the loss of relationship. Work at salvaging the relationship if at all possible. Even though you may feel like walking away from the relationship – don’t. You may not feel that way in an hour. But the things that you have said or done – make the hill climbing back very steep.

Another important step which is needed and difficult is to take personal inventory for the contributions you have made to cause the anger in the first place. Anger always puts another person in the cross hairs of responsibility. Our anger makes it so easy to judge and blame someone else for our discomfort.

It is so amazing when you think about it, how culpable someone else is when you stew in your anger. I can find 1000 reasons why the other person is a jerk. It makes perfect sense why they are at fault. Some of the most open and shut cases of someone else’s culpability happen when we are angry. The problem is our anger absolutely removes us from any responsibility. And sometimes when get even more upset if the thought of our own contribution to the mess lands in our lap.

Please, with a sound mind and open heart, in humility… take responsibility. Open your arms and take as much as you can, go first and don’t wait for another to fix it.

Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Jesus completely understands what is going on. He encourages us to be the one who moves first to the center where understanding can happen. We are to deal with our contributions to relational brokenness before we expect and help others to do their part.

Anger is difficult to navigate, sometimes it is good to have others who can help us, not people to commiserate and take up an offense for us. A person is needed who can speak truth in love. Someone with a backbone who will speak directly and honorably.

There is no need to run from anger. Be gentle and understanding. Be quick to forgive, and offer mercy. God is merciful and so are we.

Lord, thank You for forgiving our every sin. Please help us to tackle our anger in a healthy way. Please help is to see that numbing our anger only perpetuates the problem and does not fix anything. Lord, teach us to walk in humility so that we can get to the core of our problems. Holy Spirit we want to follow Your lead in our lives and be at peace. We humble ourselves today and ask that you would show us what You see as You look at and into our hearts. Thank You Jesus.

Blessings

Pastor D