Bitterness is infectious.
You can’t tame it.
It doesn’t go away on its own.
It lingers and grows and defiles all that it touches.
If you allow bitterness to grow in your heart for whatever reason,
it will infect and destroy and do things you wished it wouldn’t.
Justification? Hurt? Anger?
No matter what the reason, God wants us to give it up to Him.
Some things that happen can make you bitter.
They creep in and help you to hold onto that infectious bitterness.
An enemy of mine told me that a mutual client of ours had died.
She then said:
I know that you are religious and that you might want to pray for his family.
The thoughts of my failures at not being like Jesus flooded my mind.
The last time I saw the man, I hadn’t reached out to him when I had the chance.
I was regretting that before the Lord and Jesus showed me
that due to residual bitterness, the feelings of my enemy had infected my heart.
The man had been transferred to her section and I wanted nothing to do with her.
Big regret washed over me.
If we ask Jesus to help us understand something, He will.
He wants us to love our neighbors and our enemies. No excuses.
No room for unforgiveness, no residue of bitterness.
So, because of my feelings for her, I had dismissed him.
That is an example of infectious bitterness and how it ravages.
I suspect it was suicide but we have not yet been told how he died.
He was on the younger side of life.
I remember that last time I saw him.
I did not extend anything to him, not good, not bad. Nothing.
That is not what God wanted. I know that.
I was bothered of why I hadn’t had any feelings toward him the last time I saw him.
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Hebrews 12:15
Yucky, ugly, sticky bitterness.
Will we all react the same? Not necessarily.
But when we ask the Lord Jesus to show us if there be any wicked way in us,
rest assured, He will.
Jesus did not condemn people. He was always kind.
Easy out: I’m not Jesus.
But we don’t really have an out.
Jesus wants us to forgive from the bottom of our hearts.
That means, no ugly bitterness left.
How can we do that?
The only way is by His Spirit.
Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit says the Lord.
Don’t even try on your own, but the decision does belong to you.
Scriptural References:
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 4:6
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you,
if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Matthew 18:35