Today's post is from the past, nearly ten years ago, and yet as the Word is always relevant, I believe it will touch someone's heart today. In Jesus' name... enjoy! Get out your shovel and get ready to dig into His Word!
In His
Word 3-26-12
Who do
you trust with your life?
I am
reading through 2nd Samuel this week in my Daily Word Bible and am
finding that David really trusted God. He knew that even when he totally messed
up morally or physically, he could still repent, ask God forgiveness and know
that God would still be His God.
David
went through many trials, but one that was dear to his heart was the one that
included his son Absalom. He, Absalom, murdered his family member, then came
back and repented yet kept in his heart resentment towards his father David for
the anger he had toward him for killing his other son. In Absalom’s heart he believed it was a just
murder and I know David knew this too, but Absalom still was upset and allowed
a root of bitterness to form in his heart. He began devising a plan to take
over the kingdom from his father. In the end he was the one who ended up worse
for the wear because he had allowed the bitterness to grow.
So,
what can we do about bitterness so that we will not become an Absalom?
Bitterness
can cause you to do what you would not normally do. We are not to harbor it or
keep it in our hearts but instead we are to forgive one another. We are to
speak the truth in love and then forgive the other person who has harmed us or
caused us to become bitter and distressed. We are not to hold on to the pain
and relish it that is for certain! I know of people who enjoy their injuries of
the heart way too much. They cry out to God to help them but hold on to the
problem which turns into a root of bitterness.
And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil
speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath
forgiven you. Ephesians 4:30-32
Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord: 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; lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Hebrews 12:14-16
Bitterness
is having a harsh or disagreeably acrid taste, like that of aspirin I your
mouth. In your heart it is distressful, sorrowful and grievous. It is something
hard to bear with. It can cause a person physical pain, or emotional pain. It
comes out in antagonism and hostility. In other-words, bitterness is bad news.
We
generally pick up the seed that ends up rooted when we take offence over
something someone may have or may not have done to us.
We
perceive this as an injury and allow the injury to fester instead of asking God
to heal it and asking the person to forgive us or deciding to forgive
them. Forgiving someone is a directive
from God, we are told to forgive others in the Word many times; “forgive us our
trespasses that we may forgive those who trespass against us.”
Instead,
we talk about it with everyone; we work our selves up to an infection of
bitterness. Someone may even try to remove the bitterness from us, but we enjoy
it too much by that point. It makes me think of a dandelion weed. We see the
pretty flowers and think we know the weed, its pretty shade isn’t so bad, but
then… it fades into that beautiful puffball!
You
know the worst thing about it? We do not even realize how deep the root is
until we realize we have let it grow!
Only
God can remove a root of bitterness and only when we decide to give it to Him
will He take it and get rid of it. Then our Lord can and will heal us, but he
will wait patiently for us to realize how foolish we are behaving before he
heals us. “Why?” because our God desires our repentant heart not selfishness.
Our God desires us to seek Him first before anyone else to help us get rid of
the bitterness we are harboring. He desires to heal us of all our hurts and
sorrows; but we must have an open heart, ears to hear, and eyes to see what He
is telling us about it. Then we have to decide to obey Him.
If you
take a moment to think on this, when we eat something bitter, we have a
tendency to spit it out of our mouths right away; so why not do this with an
offence that we have allowed to grow and form bitterness in our hearts and
minds? It is what we do you know? Just as love is a choice, we choose to keep
that bitterness or spit it out. Why is this?
I
think it is because we need these three things.
- We need to recognize that we have the bitter
taste, root or feeling in our heart and mind.
- We need to repent of the harbor we have created
in our hearts and minds. Admitting that we have it is the best thing to
do.
- We need to rid ourselves of it; ask God to
take it away for good.
Only when we have given it to Jesus will the burden of bitterness be gone. Then we need to remind ourselves occasionally not to pick it back up.
The
whole idea of it being called a root
of bitterness makes me think of a dandelion root. They go down deep into the
soil and do not like to die. We can break it off on the surface but deep
beneath the ground level the root flourishes and sends out sprouts all around. Once
these sprouts grow there is no stopping it!
If we
do not ask God to be our root killer as soon as we realize there is a problem, then
we will have a returning bitterness. When the root sprouts up it is no longer
just one form, it will come out in many areas, many blossoms of bitterness;
anger, frustration, contempt, gossip and just plain spitefulness can come from
‘bitter blossoms.
Let’s
make a plan to root out the bitterness in our hearts before they can devoir our
lives.
Let’s
make it a plan to give up to God all offences, injuries and sorrows as we
receive them so that He can heal us and make us new. Then we can plant seeds of
joy, kindness, faithfulness, and forgiveness and grow love for one another!
Dear
heavenly Father, forgive us for our harbors of bitterness, help us to root out
the problems and stomp on them so that they may die. Help us to get rid of any
seeds of bitterness before they get the chance to sprout! Thank you for Your
guidance each day, every step and every way we go, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Suggested
reading: Proverbs 6:1-35, Proverbs22:1-28, Hosea10:1-15 and Luke 8:1-56