Personal Issues
By Dr. Betty Price

Other Personal issues include lying, anger, bitterness, gossip, and malice. We have to put these things off. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.” You have to put lying away. It is up to you. If you have some of these issues, there is no need to pray for God to take them away because God doesn’t want your issues. He wants you to deal with them. Ephesians 4:26 tells us, “’Be angry and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down upon your wrath.’ We ought to be angry about ungodly things that people do, but we need to put away anger that gets out of control and causes us not only to lose our temper but our manners and good behavior as well. Verse 27 gives us this great advice: “Nor give place to the devil.” See, it is up to us to give place or not to give place to the devil. He just cannot take a place in our lives if we do not give it to him.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth,
But what is good for necessary edification, that it may
Impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.
Ephesians 4:29-30

Our ungodly actions grieve the Holy Spirit a lot of times; that is why we really need to watch what we say or what we do when we claim to represent Jesus.