DEVOTIONAL: Overcoming Bitterness
Overcoming Bitterness
This week has been a struggle for me in many ways. It has been 6 years since my sisters’ accident and it just never gets any easier. Over the past 6 years I struggled with some things. It made me realize something….regardless of how much we pray, how much faith we have….sometimes bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to Christian people. Bad things happen to young people. Bad things just happen! When you lose someone so tragically, so suddenly, you realize you are not exempt from the tragedies of life. As much faith as you have, as much love as you give, as many prayers as you have prayed, sometimes bad things just happen! Even when you understand these aspects, sometimes the heart becomes bitter when bad things happen. There were times I was bitter with God about losing Christa and questioned him….Why her God? She was young, she was beautiful, she had so much life to live.
Do you have a situation in your life that you have let bitterness eat at you until you are mad at God, at life, at people and just don’t know what you can do to wipe the bitterness and pain you feel away? Bitterness can start out small but eventually it builds and builds until it festers like a boil just waiting to explode if we do not address it and let God heal those wounds. It can be an offense that we harbor in our hearts that we replay over and over that overflows into every part of our life. When we do this, the bitterness becomes deep roots in our hearts that creates anger and resentment which begins to seep out into every aspect of our lives.
The enemy loves to use those things in life that have caused us bitterness to seduce us into doubting God, doubting His goodness and doubting His promises. The enemy wants us to feel angry, resentful and he wants us to think that God has forgotten and forsaken us so that we feel that we are out of Gods reach. Bitterness will steal our joy and our strength by attacking our weaknesses and deceives us into doubting God. The Bible warns us in Hebrews 12:15 to no let any “root of bitterness” grow in our lives because it can become poison in many ways. What does poison do? It kills and destroys! That is exactly what it will do to our lives if we let it continue to grow root in our hearts.
Regardless of the bitterness that penetrates your heart and mind, God is ready to rescue you and fill you with His love and satisfy your soul. He is ready to release you from the bitterness that has stolen your joy and your life. There is nothing that is beyond His reach and there is nothing He can’t heal including your bitter, broken heart. I am proof of that! The tender touch of the Father can fill every void in your life, heal every hurt you have endured, wipe away the loneliness you have endured and make you whole again. Many times that starts with two simple steps….you asking God to deliver you and you forgiving others. When bitterness, anger and resentment rears its ugly head, you must remember that God loves you and if you will let him, His love and mercy will wipe it all clean and bring life back to your heart…..just give it all to Him today and let Him restore you back to life!
Prayer of Bitterness:
Dear Heavenly Father I come to you today and I ask you to take all of the bitterness, anger and resentment from my heart and guard my life against the influence of bitterness. I ask you to fill me with your spirit so that I can have a heart of forgiveness. God, as I release the bitterness to you today that has filled my life with so much heartache, I ask you right now to replace it with joy, strength, happiness and peace. God I thank you for restoring my life today and making bitterness a thing of the past so that I can move forward in victory to fulfill the life, the plan and the purpose that you have for me. In Jesus name I pray….Amen!
Bible verses – Bitterness
Ephesians 4:31
“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Hebrews 12:15
“See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.”
Psalms 73:26
“My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalms 107:9
“For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry should with goodness.”