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Ephesians 4:26, 27 (The Message)

"Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life."

As long as you are a member of the human race there will always be plenty of people and things to make you mad. Sometimes the people you believed in and trusted the most will let you down, sometimes the circumstances you trusted and believed in will let you down. Some dreams and plans will fail. People will hurt you for no reason. There will be times when life stuff will overwhelm you and the injustices of your world won't make you cry but rather rage with anger. And here we have it written down in ink that it's okay to get angry, so that's a relief to us all.

Here's the catch: don't let it last long. Be very careful with anger. It's a subtle, sometimes funny and fair, emotion that can very quickly open the door to evil. Be careful cause it's extremely scary how quickly anger can turn to bitterness and then before you know it your heart is a high brick wall and no one can get in, and after a while you become that person who can't even be happy anymore. The biggest thing to know is that when you give more than a day over to your anger, not taking it to the cross to let it go, the devil gets his sneaky rat foot in the door of your life and heart. Then, before you know it, he is reeking havoc in your heart, mind and soul, lying to you, deceiving you, and you react to every little issue from an angry, closed up heart. You hurt God, people you love, and yourself.

Before the sun sets, deal with your anger as best as you can. You may not be able to confront the person who hurt you or change any of the circumstances you are living in before bed time, and you may wake up the next morning as angry as when you went to bed, but the least we can do in our anger is ask the Holy Spirit to help us confront it and lay it at the feet of Jesus. Stay in God's face about how angry you are. And if you have this liberty, stay awake with the person you love who made you angry until you deal with it and are able to move on with a clean slate. If you don't heed the advice of this ever so honest verse, the enemy of your life will get into your heart and mind and make you hard and bitter inside.

Let go of the anger that's eating you up inside. Don't give the evil, stinky, crazy, disturbed devil who hates you and everyone you love, get any place in your life. You are too good and precious to be living in hardness. You deserve to be free.