Bitterness induces anger. Anger promotes anxiety. Anxiety brings about depression. Perhaps it is not your fault, yet you cannot turn it loose. Maybe it is your fault. Sometimes you are not sure.
There are days when confusion brings about great feelings of low self-esteem and inadequacies. Your mind clamps down. Thinking degenerates into an angry roar within the belly. It hurts, deep down in that dark place where you cannot touch it, or soothe it, or release it. It seems that it may rip you apart from the inside out. You want to scream, but you have grown comfortable with blaming others. The pain almost feels good and when you withdraw into that cold inner self, life takes on a special meaning. You have been wronged.
You have a right to complain. The bitterness has become such a great part of your existence that you fear being without it.
Perhaps it goes in the other direction. Maybe thoughts come freely. It shows in the words that spring through your lips. Tell everyone. Share the anger. Let them hate even as you do. Give freedom to the thoughts of revenge. Let them have a mainstay in your life. People will understand your pain. They will authorize the bitterness.
Bitterness is a part of the curse, common from the beginning.
Adam sinned. Death entered the world. Jealously, bitterness, and anger accompanied the fall. Cain killed his brother over the cause of not being acknowledged as best. Esau, angry with Jacob for taking the birthright that was his through a fair trade, cried a great and exceeding bitter cry.
Saw, king of a nation, for the sake of pride despised David, a man who protected and defend him. Jonah, a prophet, so bitter at the people of Nineveh that he would rather they go to hell than that they come to know God and salvation, fled into a distant land. Simon the sorcerer of Samaria, jealous for the power of the Holy Spirit, fell into the gall of bitterness.
Healing resides in admitting sin.
Bitterness, the son of an unforgiving heart, is sin. It defiles the man. "Looking diligently," says the book of Hebrew in chapter 12, verse 15, "lest any man fail of the grace of God: lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
Secular psychologists do not like the concept of sin. This changes the source of responsibility, and makes the solutions too well defined and clear-cut. It forces people to be accountable for their own actions. In acknowledging the existence of sin, one must then look to scripture for a resolution to the consequences of an ungodly lifestyle.
Now I do not deny that unredeemed men can conquer bitterness, cast down fear, overcome anxiety, and defeat depression. It happens every day. The sun shines on the unjust even as it does on the just. The living God is a God of mercy.
I do believe that the following of precise bible procedures will result in quicker healing for anyone. To the undone, even as to the saved, the principles of scripture will provide for a better and more peaceful life. However, for those who are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, bible obedience will reap a greater reward that that which is bound to this earth.
Submission to God, this is the healing power of scripture.
It is written by the Holy Spirit, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you". We do this by drawing near to God, cleansing our sinfulness, purifying our heart, and humbling ourselves in the sight of the Lord. Here are the Christian steps that will overcome bitterness:
Submit to the authority of God.
Admit that bitterness is a sin.
Pray for the power to act according to scripture.
Stop filling your mind and heart with wicked and accusing words.
Transform your mind and heart with words of peace, encouragement, and hope.
Pray for full understanding of the issue.
Determine the root of the bitterness.
Forgive those who have caused you pain.
Pray that the Holy Spirit precede your next step.
Go to those involved and ask that they forgive "your" bitter spirit.
Give God the glory.
Does this sound too simple, too easy? Does it sound difficult? You can always hold fast to the anger, the bitterness, and the depression. You can cleave to that ball of gall that knots in your belly and robs you of sleep and peace. You can remain in sin.
Think about it. You are already hurting, day after day, night after night. Relief is as easy as believing God. With prayer, it will not take long to purpose your heart and mind to follow God's will. And when it is finished, the heart is freed.
By: rmharrington
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