"Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil." Ephesians 4:26–27 (ESV)
I am speaking this Sunday on Forgiveness, both giving and receiving. In my studies, I ran across an interesting line from Jonathan Tropper's novel, This Is Where I Leave You. Two brothers are talking after one has been hurt...
“I wasted a lot of time being angry, time I can't get back. And now I see you, so angry about what happened to your marriage, and I just want to tell you, at some point it doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, being angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning yourself without thinking about it.” ― Jonathan Tropper, This is Where I Leave You
Time is indeed too precious to waste. Once it is gone we can never get it back. How much time have we needlessly wasted by being angry? I wonder sometimes if being angry really does become a very bad habit. Something makes us angry, we refuse to forgive, bitterness creeps into our hearts, and then we walk around angry all the time, not even knowing why. Let's not let the sun go down today until we have forgiven those who have hurt us and prayed the anger away.
“You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.” ― Max Lucado