Whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life–be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others…I am alienated from my true self. My identity as Abba’s child [a child of God] becomes ambiguous, tentative and confused.
ā Brennan Manning
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, Who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Colossians 2
Oh beloved, it is true. There is a whole bunch of stuff going wrong in the world around us. And the people with whom we live and work, are having stuff going wrong in them and to them as well. And in seeing all the things around us that are wrong, and are going wrong, we can be very easily tempted to to become tired of the whole thing and get angry at the people we see.
And this is one of the greatest mistakes we can make.
Often, the people with whom we have had trouble, have had enormous troubles in their past. They have, not yet, shed the demons that have hounded them for years. They do not realize that these imps have no place better to go than to continue along with someone, especially if the subject is not aware of their presence.
Regardless, as a person comes to belief and begins to walk in the Light, the ability of the dark being to stay attached becomes less. They don’t like light. But, as their grip loosens, their attempts at prompting the bad and flesh (really, the same thing) within the subject become more obvious… It is as if they are some sort of red dwarf of a star making a large flame but with less hope of ever giving off real light as the fuel runs out.
Still, thankfully, a friend, or a lover – or both – will help the subject get completely free from the being that was trying to ruin the new Life within a believer. Even further, the believer themselves begins to be aware of the freedom for which they have been set free.
Can we see it? Those of us around this person may still harbor some anger or bitterness or even rage at all of the anger and bitterness and even rage this person brought against us in the past. And it is here, that we need to get something straight. This person is totally forgiven, just as we are. And any anger towards them doesn’t make any sense, because it is pointed in the wrong direction.
So, the devil is never going to not be a liar. He is the one who even prompted this now-free person to the negativity in the past. There is a place to focus your anger. At the right liar. Tonight is your night beloved, time to hate the evil one and Love the one set free.
