“Do Not Let the Sun Go Down on Your Wrath.”

“Do Not Let the Sun Go Down on Your Wrath.”

It is bad enough that you have become angry at all—for anger does not work what is right in God’s eyes—but then to let it continue until the sun has gone down, until the end of the day! Then you have not only become angry, but your heart has also become hard; a hardening has set in.

In any case, make sure that you have rid yourself of your anger and resentment on the same day before you go to bed! Going to sleep with an irate heart is identical to lying down in Satan’s arms.

It is the same with other sins. It is bad enough to have sinned at all, never mind also hardening yourself so that you become evil, going to bed in an evil state with matters that are not cleared up. And it is even worse if the sun goes down day after day or even year after year over my hard heart.

The right time for being good and good-natured again (to correct the bad that was said, to confess one’s sin, etc.) is of course immediately after you have sinned; in any case, it is of the utmost importance to get it done before the sun goes down; otherwise you have hardened yourself.

There is far more hardening among God’s people than we are apt to think.

For example to lie, and then go day after day, perhaps even all year without making it right, takes a fairly hard heart to be able to do that.

Of course it is shameful to sin at all. But if you have sinned anyway, you must at least not let the sun go down before you have cleared the matter up with God and with men so that you avoid hardening yourself.

May God have mercy on all hard and unrepentant hearts.