Our family loves to watch American Ninja Warrior. My son has noticed that some of the best ones on the show are rock-climbers. So naturally, as little boys are prone to do, my son has taken up trying to climb stuff. And naturally, as grown men are prone to do, I like to try to see if I can still do it myself.
The other day we were in Branson having a bit of family time and down at the Landing area we noticed this big wall with some rocks sticking out. We did what any fan of American Ninja Warrior would do—we tried to climb it. We couldn’t get up very far though because it wasn’t made for climbing. There were places where we’d have to stop because there was no way to progress—we couldn’t put our foot anywhere. We couldn’t get a foothold. We couldn’t establish ourselves on that wall. It didn’t have a place for us so we had to give up climbing.
God tells us in Ephesians 4:27 that we are to “give no opportunity to the devil” or as some translations have it “do not give the devil a foothold”. Literally that verse is saying “do not give the devil a place”. When I thought about trying to climb that wall this verse became more clear to me.
Nobody believer wants to give the devil a place to stand. We don’t want to give him a foothold in our churches. To give him a foothold or a place would be like giving him a seat at the table—a place where he could interject his ideas, cause us to give weight to his thoughts. Certainly no believer wants to allow him to grab hold of something and say, “Ah, now here…here is a place where I can grab hold of? Here is a place where I can really stabilize myself and make some inroads? Yes, here is a place where I can worm my way into this person’s heart or this church body”.
There are many places where the devil could get a foothold in a person’s heart or in the life of a church. Yet, there is one particular place where we are warned against not allowing the devil to gain a place, and that is in our unresolved anger.
Anger, though, seems to be one of those acceptable sins. We live in a culture of outrage and Christians are not immune from partaking. In fact many believers feel entitled to their outrage. This understandable. We are often outraged about holy things, so we feel as if our anger is justified. On occasion it might be, but for the most part our simmering rage is where the devil gains a foothold.
I agree with Brant Hansen when he says,
“Thinking we’re entitled to keep anger in our laps—whether toward the sin of a political figure, a news network, your dumb neighbor, your lying spouse, your deceased father, whomever is perfectly natural, and perfectly foolish”. (Unoffendable,12)
So unless you want to give the devil a foothold pursue forgiveness and reconciliation. Let go of your anger and find healing in Christ.
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Photo source: here
I had the opportunity to preach on this passage recently. You can listen here.
It’s hard for me to let go of my anger, especially when I’ve been mistreated by others as if I don’t matter. Because I’ve been mistreated, I keep my distance away from other people. I’m afraid of getting too close because I don’t want to get hurt again. People are selfish, uncaring, vindictive, and two-faced. Due to my experience I can’t help the way I feel about others.