The High Price Of A Little Ice
(Ephesians 4:26)
During our Mission Alaska trip to young Native Alaskans, I spent a lot of
time in a little missionary aircraft. It’s the only way to get to villages
that are 400 miles from the nearest road! One day when the weather wasn’t
much fun, our pilot asked me to keep an eye on the wing on my side. He said,
“Let me know if you see any icing.” Of course, I hear icing, I think of a
birthday cake. A pilot hears icing, and he thinks danger in the air.
Amazingly, a little ice on the wings adds just enough weight to endanger the
plane. It interrupts the airflow that keeps the plane airborne, and it
starts losing altitude. So that day over Alaska, I really kept my eyes open
for ice!
Now, it doesn’t take much ice on the wings to cause an airplane to start
losing altitude. It doesn’t take much ice in your soul to cause you to start
losing altitude – to start going down spiritually.
Our word today from the Word of God addresses some of the attitudes and
reactions that start an ice buildup in your heart. Beginning in Ephesians
4:26, Paul says, “In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down
while you are still angry.”
A little anger accumulating in your heart – hard feelings that aren’t
immediately confronted and resolved. Hey, how dangerous can that be? About
as dangerous to your relationship with God and with that other person as a
little ice on an airplane’s wings. Listen to what God says about it – “And
do not give the devil a foothold.” Unresolved anger, even for a day, gives
the devil a wide open door to bring you down!
Then God tells us to take radical action against other destructive feelings..
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with
every form of malice.”
In other words, God says get rid of it! Attack it – the resentment you’ve
allowed to build up inside you . . . the jealousy . . . the unforgiveness . .
. the anger.
But God knows you can’t remove the ice in your soul without replacing it with
something warm. So He tells you to treat the people who have angered or
aggravated or hurt you exactly the opposite of the way you feel like treating
them. He says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each
other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.”
Those last few words are the key. You make a conscious decision to remove
the walls and treat that person – not as they have treated you – but as
Jesus has treated you – with undeserved grace and forgiveness. Until you
reach out to God for the grace to forgive that person . . . to treat them
with compassion and kindness – you will keep going down. And ultimately the
weight of that ice in your soul will make you crash.
Be as vigilant about ice in your soul as a pilot is about ice on the wings.
And don’t let it build up for even a day! If you do, it will ultimately
bring down a relationship, a marriage, a family, a church, a ministry. It
will bring down your walk with God. There’s a very high price for a little
ice!
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. Permission to reproduce this
material is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for
non-commercial purposes, will not be sold, and will be distributed for
the sole purpose of expanding the Gospel.
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