Hebrews 12:14-15 (NKJV)
"Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;"
Ephesians 4:31 (NKJV)
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."
What is bitterness? I found a definition of what bitterness is and it goes like this:
“It is the feeling of hurt, resentment, anger, and even hate that can build up in our hearts when we have been hurt by another person or by an experience in life. It can be directed towards other people and even towards God”.
Our adversary satan is always looking for ways to draw us God’s daughters away from our relationship with God. One of the ways he does this is through bitterness or bitter hearts. Bitterness follows on from us being hurt, offended, and disappointed. If we allow these to fester in our hearts and not thoroughly deal with them by admitting our pain, forgiving, releasing the offence and the offender, crying out to God for cleansing and healing, we become bitter. We can even become bitter against God Almighty because we feel disappointed.
Bitterness is as a result of a heart that has become hardened and it is a dangerous place to be. The reason it is dangerous is because it causes to lose true fellowship with God. We grieve the person of the Holy Spirit when we live with bitterness in our hearts. We become weak spiritually and lose our appetite for prayer, study of the Word, fellowship with other believers, praise and worship the Lord nor get on with the things of God generally. We become dry and brittle. Having a bitter heart will also cause people to draw away from us when they should be there for us.
Bitterness is like cancer. It can so spread that we become totally defiled. It causes us to lose our ability to be tenderhearted, kind, loving and forgiving. It can affect you and I spirit, soul and body. In other words it can cause you to backslide as a Christian, bring about depression and cause you to be physically sick. Bitterness will cause you to be overly critical, cynical and pessimistic. It will strip you of faith in God and love for people. When a person is full of bitterness, nothing goes well. Everything just seems so hard, there is no breakthrough. Bitterness will cause relationships to be broken, homes destroyed and churches divided if we allow it to grow in our lives.
The truth is anyone of us including myself can become bitter if we are not careful. Our adversary the devil is always looking for an opening in our lives where he can gain a foothold so he can turn it into a STRONGHOLD – BITTERNESS. This is why we are told to guard our hearts. My sister in the Lord please be careful what you allow in your heart. Your heart was made to be loving and compassionate. Nothing is so important or worth allowing the destructive nature of bitterness into our hearts. Nothing whatsoever. Let go of that bitterness, it is fatal and can destroy your destiny.
The grace of Christ covers every situation so let’s allow His grace to work for us and the Holy Spirit to help us. The key to dealing with bitterness is to first of all recognize that it exists in your heart. First ask the Lord to search your heart and show you your heart. Admit and acknowledge that there is bitterness there as He shows you. Confess it as sin before the Lord and ask for His forgiveness. Ask him to cleanse your heart and heal you of every hurt, pain and disappointment. Inner healing is key and God will heal us in the deep recesses of our hearts as we draw close to him and call upon Him. If you are not able to deal with this on your own, be vulnerable to another believer and ask them to pray with you.
I pray in the name of Jesus that the root of bitterness will not find its way into any of our hearts, and if it has for any reason, I pray that it will be completely uprooted and removed in Jesus name.
More grace to you in this season.