(June 26th) …you can, however, take THIS with you…

This week we’re looking at somethings you can and can’t take with you to the afterlife.

Money? Nope, can’t take it with you (to Heaven or Hell).
Love? Yep, you can take it right on into Heaven.
Stubbornness? Nope, there’s no opportunity for it in Hell.

Here’s something you CAN take with you, unfortunately you can only take it to Hell:

a grudge.

Almost as bad as money, people love to hold on to grudges. There are people in their 90’s who harbor ill will toward someone who wronged them when they were 18. They sit in a nursing home, with an oxygen tube going into their nose, their skin is pale, their teeth are gone, they can barely stay awake, but bring up the name of that person 70 years ago and they will go OFF on that person for half an hour.

What a sad way to live, holding a grudge.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:26-27

Getting angry is not a sin; Jesus Himself became angry on occasion. But Paul warns us not to let our anger lead us into sin. How does that happen? When we “let the sun go down” on our anger. To stew in our anger and let it fester is a horrible thing for the soul. Husbands and wives argue and fight but they must never go to bed angry. If they do, the problem that caused the argument doesn’t get resolved; it just gets buried. Eventually, like a volcano, what is buried will erupt.

Those who hold grudges have gone to bed angry; they’ve woken up the next morning with the problem unresolved. Thus, whenever they think about the other person, their feelings become hostile and bitter. They have given their minds over to negativity. They have “given place to the Devil” and allowed him to move into their minds and control their thoughts.

If the grudge is not cast away (1 Peter 5:7) it will become a weight that drags the person into Hell. And in Hell the person will have all of eternity to stew in bitterness and anger, without ever having the opportunity to become unburdened by it.

You can take a grudge with you, but why would you want to?!