I wrote in the previous post that the Institute of Basic Life Principles has something for every season of life.  And although I have attended these seminars a multitude of times, I am hearing some things as if for the very first time.  

One of the most fascinating things I learned last night was about anger/forgiveness. There is a verse in the Bible that says to not let your anger go down with the sunset (go to bed angry and to not forgive someone before going to sleep) because if you do not, you will give place to the devil.  Bill Gothard explained this verse in a way that I have never understood before.

If you have ever gone to bed angry with someone, then “forgiving them” is not enough.  What happens when we violate the Scripture of letting the sun go down upon our wrath is that Satan is given a foothold into our life and a “stronghold” takes place.  A stronghold is something that we begin to believe that is contrary to Scripture. In other words, we begin to believe a lie.  We do not even realize that this has happened, even if that morning, after having opened our Bible to have devotions, Satan has taken a territory in our mind because we have violated the Scripture of going to bed angry.

Bill Gothard has this grid he shows in the workbook we received the first night.  This grid represents our mind/ soul.  Every time we went to bed angry, thus violating the Scripture, Satan took a footing in one of those representative grids in our mind.  It is in this we begin to have a mind-set and conclusion about something that is contrary to Scripture.

Although I have read my Bible, prayed, and not strayed from Him for decades, I can look back and see times in my life where my thinking was not right.  I can remember things that I did that were not glorifying to God.  I can recall choices that I made that were not ones to be proud of.  I made decisions that I would teach my children to do otherwise.  How could one daily read the Bible and pray, and not walk in the Light for every decision ever made in the past?

This is the answer to that question.  There have been many times in my lifetime that I have violated this Scripture verse of not going to bed angry.  It is during those times that I gave a foothold to Satan in my mind and it is from there I have not always made the right decisions and choices nor had the right priorities and goals.  Although I had gone on in life with the unresolved conflict, “forgiven” the one I believed had given the occasion to the offense, kept on reading the Bible and praying, a serious error had occurred in my life because of this violation.

Steps of Action as listed by Bill Gothard:

1.     1.       Confess the sin of bitterness (Hebrews 12:15; I John 1:9

It is here that we close our eyes in prayer and ask God to bring to our mind the occasions that have happened in the past that have deep rooted bitterness within us.  He will bring to our mind, if we ask Him, to recall those situations that are deep rooted within us, although we may have not consciously thought of them for a very long time.

2.    2.    Ask God to regain surrendered ground – Psalm 23:3

The footholds that Satan took when we violated the Scripture of going to bed angry, we pray to God that He will take back this surrendered ground.  It is through the blood of Jesus Christ,  applied to our bitterness in this area that will give restoration and freedom from the strongholds that Satan has taken.   

I loved this explanation. I have always thought in “word pictures” and this grid of the mind helped me to see what has happened in my life. 

3.    3.  Tear down strongholds with truth – II Corinthians 10:4-5 (Search out Scripture daily to apply to your life situations and beliefs.)

4.    4.   Show mercy by forgiving your offender – Matthew 6:14-15

Be ye angry, and sin not:

 let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:26