WHAT DOES A PERSON WITH BITTERNESS LOOK LIKE?
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. (Hebrews 12:15 NLT) (Hebrews 12:15 NLT)
Yesterday we were sharing how abuse becomes an offense and if we do not forgive, the offense ends up converting into bitterness. How to know if there is a root of bitterness in our life? Today we will share three signs to know if a root of bitterness exists, and in the next few days we will share some more.
1.- Passivity. The bitter person loses his/her shine, they become passive, they stop fighting and dreaming, they have a victim mentality that says: “I am the victim” “everything goes wrong for me”, “everyone is against me and nobody understands me”.
They retract, they isolate themselves and they no longer want to expose themselves to further harm. They stop being that person who fought; They no longer fight for their marriage, business, nor for bettering themselves, nor for learning English, nor for their ministry or children.
2.- Grieve the Holy Spirit. The bitter person has a certain way of living with angry attitudes and always criticizes, etc.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with the way you live … Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander and all kinds of misconduct. (Ephesians 4: 30-31 NLT)
3.- They lose the ability to trust other people. They can’t have deep relationships with other people, and sometimes, not even with their own spouse. They don’t let people get too close. They don’t trust anyone. Why? because they were beaten and abused as children. You stop trusting the government, authorities, the churches, etc. and especially in a world as bad as now where we see so many flaws of authority everywhere.
The enemy came to put bitterness because he wants to steal, kill and destroy; he wants to steal our dreams, joy, God’s purpose in our life, rob us of the ability to trust other people, the ability to trust your spouse and to have deep covenant relationships with Him; but Jesus came to give life and life in abundance and to restore every area of our life.
Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. (Hebrews 12:15 NLT)
Think about it:
Have you stopped fighting or dreaming for something?
What kind of attitudes do you have with your family and with others?
Do you have deep relationships, or do you isolate yourself from others?