Sometimes when God speaks to me, and I feel like it’s for our whole family, I begin to implement what He is saying into our everyday routine. He has been really speaking to me through Ephesians 4:26-27, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” In the same thought Paul later says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
Another translation says, “giving the devil a foothold.” When we give the devil a foothold in our life, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.
I tell my children that when we feel angry, it’s important and it matters. We do not want to repress our anger and pretend like we’re ok, and it’s actually important to express our anger. The other day my 4-year-old son was yelling at his brother, “I am super mad at you!”
This is actually super good! I want him to feel that anger and express that anger without letting it control him. This is exactly what Paul is saying when he says, “Be angry, but don’t let it control you.”
Feeling anger is important. However, we have to realize that feeling angry is opening a door, and we have a choice. What are we going to do with this open door? What are we going to let in here? Are we going to let the Holy Spirit in? Are we going to let self-control in? Or are we going to let anger control us and let the devil get in?
I’ve been teaching my kids throughout the day that when we get angry, if we don’t close the door, it’s like letting the devil stick his foot in and keep the door open at night. He can then bring in things from his realm that we don’t want.
This is super important in the world right now. We need to make this important in our families. What I’ve been doing is asking the kids in our nighttime routine, “Hey, what made you angry today? Here’s something that made me angry today.” Then I lead us all in a prayer to forgive and let go of the anger so that it doesn’t control us, and we close that door.
We want to be a family that doesn’t grieve the Holy Spirit. What we do with anger either grieves Him or pleases Him. What we do with anger either keeps the devil out or lets him in. This is one of the things we’re doing every day to keep the devil from having access into our home, into our lives, and into our family.
This is such a huge key that teaches us how to stay free and Holy Spirit led and not other spirit led. We don’t want any spirit leading us besides the Holy Spirit! While we haven’t nailed this every single day, it’s something we’re working to implement daily. Let’s look over our day, forgive where we need to forgive, and close the door to anger in our lives. Let’s not let anger control us and not let the sun go down on us with that still in our hearts.
