Ephesians 4:26-27- “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
It is Christmas season. Time for fellowship. Time when families visit each other and take time off to intentionally spend a longer duration of time together. Even the number of invitations to meals from family and friends usually increase around this time. Most times, since it is an annual meeting or maybe longer – greetings, hugs, and pleasantries fill the air. The warm feeling of having missed each other and the recall of past Christmasses and other memories create a bubble of love in the home. And then someone starts getting very fidgety and restless. He is not happy with the love and joy all around so he tries to conjure up few tricks to introduce misunderstandings, recall of past hurts and unrest. Yes the no-good devil gets up to something.
Unfortunately, being human and in the flesh and not being alert in the spirit, 90% of the time we fall in the trap set by him. We let the whispers get to us and we react instantly. The love bubble bursts and the atmosphere at home turns to groups of gossips, idleness and self-centeredness, loud fighting, crying, quiet hurt and other emotions and trappings.
We have to constantly stay in the presence of God in our mind and spirit through prayer, reading the Word and putting into our system things that God wills and allows. We must stay strong with a good hold on our rock and salvation, Jesus. We make mistakes when we don’t have a good foothold and this causes us to backslide. When we stay angry at someone, we give devil a foothold in our heart. A foothold can be the jutting rock a climber uses to conquer a mountain or the captured land an army uses to conquer a country. Don’t give Satan a foothold so he can conquer you. Get rid of your anger. Pray about it; Jesus waits to helps us in our troubles. Another option is to talk to the person who you are angry at and choose to forgive them. Now the devil will have such a smooth and clean heart and no foothold to mess up your life.
The Bible also reminds us of the same in Ephesians 4:31 -” Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger.”
