Deal with it now

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Anger is an outward expression of internal conflict - conflict caused when we allow an offense to be internalized. Something someone does, an event that happens, prompts that internal response of heart, mind, and emotions. The offense happens - a tiny seed of resentment, bitterness, and anger is planted. That seed doesn't have to take root, though. If it is allowed to 'germinate' and take root, anger is an outflow of that internalization of the offense. Hebrews 12:15 reminds us that we are not to allow any root of bitterness to take root as it will defile not only us, but others, as well.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is take the offense to God and talk it out with him. We often need to just speak about it with someone, so who better than God himself? Bring that offense and all those ugly feelings to him, ridding yourself of the very seed that could take root if allowed to fester. We often do just the opposite - we take the offense to another, 'gossiping' about it with them, and what does that do? It almost always allows the offense to grow bigger in your eyes and your heart. When we are honest in our disclosure of the offense to God first, we find we don't need to take it to others. It gets settled right there.

We all have times when it is natural to be angry because of the things that happened. We never have a right to take that offense to the point of us sinning by returning it with vengeance, though. Remember, it is no longer you that lives, but Christ in you (Galatians 2:20). We live a different life, demanding different responses that we might have had at one time to the offense. If the seed never gets to take root, we won't feel like we have to justify ourselves or strike out to return tit-for-tat. If we want to live above or free of anger, we put the offense at the foot of the cross and we work it out with Jesus, not others.

God will do a work in our heart FIRST - often long before he does the work in the heart of the one that offended us. That may not seem "FAIR" to some, but it could just be God's plan to deal with the root of sin in another's life through the testimony they see within our lives. Just sayin!