Repent
therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine
heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of
bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity.
Acts 8:22-23
Imagine sitting in the courtroom of a king
in the ancient days. A once-faithful servant was caught in the act of plotting
the murder of his king and is now standing trial before the man he had plotted
to kill. A deathly silence falls over the courtroom as the king takes his seat
upon his ornate throne. All eyes are on the king, and all people are expecting
the punishment to be immediate death. Imagine your surprise when the king
produces a vial of liquid and stands to pronounce his judgment: “I trusted you
with my life, and you have violated that trust. Now, as your punishment, I am
going to drink this cup of poison.”
“That’s crazy!” you might shout. “That is
not a punishment that is going to affect the accused.” And you would be exactly
right. Yet many people commit that same act so often through bitterness. Maybe
someone offended you in front of a group of your friends, or perhaps someone
took advantage of you in some way. The natural human reaction is to be bitter
toward the person who wronged you. Instead of going to talk to the person to
work things out between you, you say nothing; instead, you harbor those
feelings of anger and resentment in your heart.
Do you realize that the only person you are
hurting is yourself? The Bible commands us over and over not to harbor those
feelings of bitterness because they will destroy our spiritual life and our
inner peace. The person you are bitter toward is rarely affected by your
bitterness because, many times, they do not even realize that you feel that way
about them.
The way to resolve the problem is to go to
that person one-on-one and talk to him about what is bothering you. What you
will find is that, most of the time, the person will apologize for what he did
and things will get back to normal between you. Bitterness is like drinking
poison to punish someone else. It makes absolutely no sense. If you have
problem with another person, take care of it today before it is too late.
Quote of
the day: “He that carries bitterness to bed with him will find the devil creep
between the sheet.” – Rev. William Secker (1899)
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