Is Bitterness Draining You of Life?
Are you (any hint of) bitter? “All bitterness is ultimately toward God.” (since at the very least, God who is sovereign allowed ‘it’.)
Ephesians 4:30-31 (NASB)
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God… Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Bitterness towards people requires forgiveness….there is no other way to get rid of it – vs.32. It is actually self-destructive. Someone has said, “Bitterness is like you drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.” A big key in forgiving others is choosing to focus on how much God has forgiven you.
But what about bitterness towards God? That requires surrender … which comes out of trust which comes by God’s grace which comes out of humbling myself. Possibly the greatest statement of faith in the Bible was made by Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him…” (13:15) Can you truly believe that God causes all things to work together for good? Rom. 8:28 He really is that BIG.
We can’t really comprehend the extent of the destruction caused by being bitter …. And not just to ourselves; through our bitterness ‘many (everyone around us) are defiled’. Heb. 12:15
It should be obvious that bitterness hinders/chokes out the effectiveness of prayer. A bitter person cannot experience the repentance that God blesses. (Heb. 12:17)
Pray ‘search me, O God’ this week to surrender and forgive and experience an unprecedented realm of largeness and freedom in your praying.