From Bitter to Better
Brendan Mc Crossan
Brendan Mc Crossan
5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away;asfortongues,they willbedestroyed and cease;asforknowledge,itwillpassaway [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Take care that no root of bitterness grows inside you Hebrews 12-15
If we follow the pattern of love then our lives would flow with blessing after blessing because love is God and God is love and when we do things in love then we will experience awesome things happening in our lives.
One little letter can make all the difference in your life and that letter is “e” just a little letter “e” and it makes a thousand differences in your life for eternity, changing the “I” in bitter to “e” makes it better. And note the letter is ‘I’ and that means you. ‘I’ is self centred; ‘I’ is all about ‘you’ and not about others. Nor about Jesus and his life inside of you ‘I’ takes offence and you feel hurt when others do you wrong and letting that go down deep inside of you causes you to become bitter. Love hardly notices when others do it wrong according to the word. It is better to praise God for the wrongs that others do to you than to take offence and become bitter.
God says pray for those who have hurt you, and when we don’t, we allow resentment that turns to hatred and Unforgiveness to flourish in our life and that in turn separates us from God it draws us away from because deep down we know were supposed to forgive others like we
29—5-2011
From Bitter to Better
One
Hebrews-12-15-Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that 15Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancour, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.
1-Corinthians-13-4-Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
Bitterness does not make you feel better, it gives no gratification, and it takes pleasure in the misery of others and hurts of those whom it resents.
were forgiven. When we become bitter we see only the worst in others; saying things like you don’t expect anything better from them do you?
Bitterness is a bitter pill to swallow it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and leaves you angry all the time and with anger comes no peace because there is no peace in bitterness only turmoil. Bitterness leaves you feeling frustrated because the person you are bitter at seems to be blessed more than you; I have seen this time after time, those who don’t deserve to have good things given them seem to always get good things and this in turn makes us even more bitter and we even become bitter against God for blessing those who wronged us; but we don’t know if they repented of their sin against us or not only God knows.
So what benefit do you receive from all your bitterness? None! For there are no benefits from God for those who are bitter, but you’re getting your reward from Satan the devil, you get to enjoy and share his anger, his resentments, his hatred and his loathing for all of God’s creation, you get to take part in his hatred of mankind and you too become bitter and twisted up inside filled with hate at mankind. Satan is a great benefactor for those who do his work, to those who hate and resent their brother or sister or neighbour or teacher or just someone you know, he fills them up with even more hatred and bitterness that is Satan’s reward to those who love to do his will.
Bitterness is a feeling; love is a decision. Bitterness makes you feel angry hard done by, resentful and hatred, etc, but love makes you decide to bless those who hurt you; love calls you to decide to ask for mercy for them from God, love overlooks their faults their outburst of anger at you, love decides they must have a bad day that’s why they feel so bad.
Love on the other hand does make you feel better, with every act of you love you feel elevated, lifted higher, feel good about yourself, not vain or feeling uppity or above others but satisfied inside that you did what God expects from one of his own children, you know looking back later that you shared in the presence and fellowship with your God and that makes you feel even “better.”
Where does bitterness get you? What are its benefits? What great thing has it ever done for you? What pleasure has it given you? What joy has bitterness brought you? What are the fruits of sweet revenge doing for you? The answer to all these questions is bitterness has never brought you anything but unhappiness and anger and probably a bad back to name but one source of back pain. Did you know that anger is a source of back pain; it has one of the roots that cause some back pain. And also stomach pain and discomfort. What happens when you meet someone whom you are bitter at, the first thing that happens is your stomach muscles tighten and your back straightens with tension waiting for confrontation, in the meantime your stomach is pumping out acid into itself and unless that acid is dealing with food you just ate it goes to other parts of the body and causes upset tummy, pain in the joints and pain in the neck, to mention just a few. When you meet that person whom you are bitter at, your stomach gets butterflies in it, and in other words it is upset and is really pumping out bad acid which in turns affects the body with pain later on.
God on the other hand forgives and blesses those who have hurt him and those who belong to God get the privilege to do the same with those who have hurt them; you get to share the same feelings that God has for those who hurt or rejected him, his love pouring out of you and his compassion for them, you share God’s goodness towards them, you get to share in God’s blessings for those who don’t deserve it as far as you would feel.
Which is worse feeling better or feeling bitter? I know that feelings of better is better for me is gives me a feeling of well being, bitter makes me feel angry miserable inside of myself, at war with the world.
I have a close relative and she is very bitter, she doesn’t speak to me though I done her no wrong, she has fallen out with all of her other brothers and sisters and only spoke to me at the wakeof my brother Sean who had died, shehad fallen out with him as well. Shehas been taken to court by her neighbour and been given a barring order and a keep the peace order, though shealwaysclaimed theotherwasatfaultbutcourtproved itwasherthatwascausing problems in the street. I could go on and on giving examples of the cost of bitterness, and yet she sees the world and its brother are the ones at fault; bitterness has blinded her to the truth. Are you like that? Do you feel bitter towards your neighbour or brother or sister or family member, if you do then you need to repent of your sin because bitterness is a sin and needs to be repented from and stopped by an act of the will.
EphesiansAmplified.Bible4:31
Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarrelling (brawling, clamour, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
In my ministry I meet many people who are locked in bitterness, people who go so far as to choose to go to hell instead of forgiving someone whom they are holding bitterness against. When I tell them that they must forgive to be forgiven otherwise they are choosing to send themselves to hell, they incredibly choose to go to hell rather than let go of bitterness. I seen it with two neighbours in my street, one is now dead and my father in law went to the both of them individually and pleaded that they forgive and become friends again or be just good neighbours, both of them refused to let go of their bitterness, and bitterness is Unforgiveness, and a person who refuses to forgive will themselves be refused forgiveness, God’s word not mine. You are the only person that can send you to hell because of bitterness, you and not God will send you there, God wants you to come to heaven but bitterness wants to draw you down to hell with it. Satan loves bitter people they do so much work for him spreading bitterness and hatred all around infecting others with their bitterness, and sowing seeds of disgruntlement. If you do not forgive and let go of bitterness, you will not be forgiven yourself, and there’s only one place that you can go freely by your own choosing, hell! One little letter can change all that change your “I” to an “e” in b-tter and change your attitude, you are displeasing God who sent his son to die for the sins of the entire world and your sins also, and he forgave the world though they wronged him deeply, he didn’t get bitter and hold on to resentment and then let resentment fester into hate, and hardness of heart.
Look at this scripture, see how much the root of bitterness brings forth with it, those things are not the sign of a Christian are they? Bitterness brings forth these things indignation, wrath, rage and bad tempered, evil speaking abusive and blasphemous language, you won’t have a clean mouth when you are filled with bitterness, bitterness is evil and should never be in the Christian child of God the Father’s nature. You can do something about bitter to make it better, change that one letter “I” to an “e” in the word b-tter you insert what letter you chose to apply by an act of the will.
DidyounoticeinthefirstscriptureHebrews12-15-thatitsaysbitternesscausesbittertorment? And bitter torment and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.
There is no need to hold on to bitterness, it is your choice to let go and surrender it to God, asking him to heal the wounds that caused bitterness to rise in the first place. Give no place to the devil scripture says and bitterness is giving the devil first place in your life. Scripture says if you do not forgive you will be sent to the torture chamber, not the person that you hold bitterness against, it is you that is going to the torture chamber.
Bitterness is destroying you and no one else, why let the devil destroy you, you were created for better than this. Let the scales fall from your eyes I pray so that you may see that love does not hold bitterness in it and God through Jesus calls us to live a life of love not hatred filled with bitterness. One little letter can change your whole life if you allow God to do it, Give your bitternessto himthrough repentanceand ask forhisforgiveness,then leaveitwith him,change the I in bitter to an e and things will definitely get better for you, you will experience God’s peace and joy.
Who is it that suffers bitter torment? The first person to suffer bitter torment is the one who is holding on to bitterness, then it contaminates those around you as you spread your poison with your vile tongue, there is no real peace in your heart, no joy, no happiness, you are devoid of real love which is Christ himself. Scripture says without love you are just an empty gong sounding, irritating peoples ears, so the first person suffering torment is “you!” the one who harbours bitterness.
God calls for repentance for those with bitterness in their heart, he asks that they repent and give their bitterness over to God to remove from them.
Holding bitterness in your heart is not worth it, because it makes you miserable, separates you from God and usually those around you as well because you are two wrapped up in your little world of bitterness there is no room from friends.
In fact if you allow bitterness to rule in your heart then I doubt that you even know God at all and are far from him.
Most bitter people are on their own, not all, but most, because they don’t have time for others emotions and feelings just their own, and people feel this coming off of those who live in bitterness and avoid them if possible, they might not understand why they don’t like being close to this person but their spirit does.
Other people get contaminated by your foul bitterness, they get to hear your ranting and ravings about some other child of God that Jesus died for, he didn’t just die for you, you know?
But I am sure that you the reader don’t harbour bitterness inside you, or at least I hope not, and that your just reading this book because it’s on my website. Bitterness separates you from God, God is love and anything residing in hate cannot reside in love, because when hate comes in love goes out the window, to coin a phrase. Love and hate cannot live in the same house, that is you, one will rule and only one is allowed to rule and if you let bitterness rule then love goes out of you because love is a fruition of God.
As I said previously, what benefit is there in holding on to bitterness, you are the only one that bitterness is truly hurting, not the people that you are holding on to bitterness against, they probably are not even aware that you hold so much hatred and bitterness in your heart towards them. Make a decision now today to let go of your bitterness, change that little letter into an e instead of an I and begin to live as God intended you to live, loving those who hurt and offended you; by doing so you will be the one who is living in the victory of Christ Jesus in you, and you will have defeated the devil who’s only desire is to separate you from God and to kill you, both spiritually and physically.
Amen
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded, 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
Matthew-18-23- “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 as he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27The servant’s master took pity on him cancelled the debt and let him go.
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
These are Gods own words, these are the words spoken by Jesus himself warning us to be merciful to others otherwise it will be us who goes to the torture chamber. Is it worth it to hold on to bitterness just so that you can sit and dwell angrily at someone who may have offended you or done something on you? It is worth it that you will go to the torture chamber for eternity just because you hate someone and let bitterness fill your soul. A sane person reading the words of Jesus would realise that bitterness in not worth the suffering it brings with it because it does not bring with it peace or joy the fruits of the Holy Spirit, have you come to your senses yet, have you decided to let go of your bitterness, remember it’s no one else’s bitterness but yours and you are the one suffering from a heart filled with bitterness. It’s time to let go and let God have your bitter heart and make it better by changing the words you speak, and the feelings you feel. Peace of mind is better than turmoil any time. Let go today right now as you read this, it is a choice that you have before you now torture chamber or peace with God for eternity, the choice is entirely yours, make the right choice change the I to an e and make things better not bitter.