When life doesn’t go as planned, learn to guard your heart against the root of bitterness. It begins with a slight grudge. Then, it starts to grow in your mind over time, where you did an excellent job at work, and an adversary gets all the credit. Instead of focusing on My presence and having an attitude of forgiveness, you dwell on your treatment.
You repeatedly mull in your head where something started as an innocent misunderstanding, but now you perceive it as a well-designed plot against you by friends and colleagues. (The Sting of Being Misunderstood) Instead of speaking up and making your feelings known, you decide not to say anything, which festers like an open wound. It only takes a short time before bitterness turns into full-blown anger and resentment toward everyone who is plotting against you.
Everyone suffers and struggles with bitterness and resentment, and ultimately the most significant struggle for you is your resentment toward Me as God. There is a wave of underlying anger that your life did not turn out as you expected it to. You asked for guidance and blessing, and when things didn’t work out the way you hoped, you concluded that I wasn’t there or didn’t care about you. You feel you trusted me and did your best to do my will, but when your marriage and career didn’t work out, I was to blame for your problems and failures.
I hope you can forgive Me and the others who stood in the way of you accomplishing your dreams and goals in your life. Don’t let the “should have” or the “could have” and the “what ifs” destroy your joy. Stop replaying the memory banks and thoughts in your mind and justifying your reaction. As an act of your will, let go of the resentment or anger toward Me or anyone. Forgive others and forgive Me, but most of all, forgive yourself and cut out the root of bitterness in your heart. I hope you can grow to accept the life you lived and not the life you wanted and thought you deserved. Don’t let the root of bitterness take over your life.
Scripture:
See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews: 12:15 NIV
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31 NIV
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