ROOTED RENEGADE

As I was reading Acts 14:2, Holy Spirit so tenderly spoke to me about bitterness. While Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel, there were those who didn’t belief and caused bitterness in the minds of the Gentiles as a way to turn people away from hearing the truth of Jesus. When we allow others to spark bitterness within us, we are allowing ourselves to stay stuck in a dark place spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Bitterness is a breakdown of the mind and soul whereas you are not able to move forward.  You get stuck in gear unable to shift.  It is just like a light that has multiple settings, one of which rotates colors.  If the rotation stops, then the light is stuck in that setting and you either need to not use that setting anymore, fix it, or buy a new lamp.  Either way you chose, it is your decision how you move forward.  Personally, I would get rid of the broken lamp and get a new one.

Apply the same thing to bitterness.  When we are embittered in our minds, we continue to ruminate over an offense or a situation and we don’t allow God to come in and heal it.  Nor can we operate out of a place of love for that person(s) to which we feel bitterness towards.  All we are able to see is the plight of the situation.  We see through a victim lens instead of a victor’s lens.  

Bitterness breeds unbelief.  Unbelief in what God can do in your life as well as the other persons.  It is a limitation and restraint.  It limits your thinking and restrains Holy Spirit from moving powerfully in your life.  It also hinders your walk and how you function in life.  Bitterness is really ugly on a person.  It comes out in words they say, their actions, and how they act around people who remind them of the offender(s).

God will not allow you to succeed in bitterness of heart because it is out of that bitterness that all your endeavors will derive from.  The lens of bitterness will drive every decision you make if you do not arrest it with the forgiveness and love of God.

It deteriorates the mind and soul and causes division within yourself as if you were at an internal war.  You can get delivered from demons all day long, but if you do not repent and release bitterness, it will plague your entire being. 

It is rottenness to the bones.  It is a binding to the mind.  It is a cancer to the soul.  

Allow yourself today to be free from bitterness and walk in the fullness of God’s great grace, forgiveness and love.  You will never be able to change a person or something that has happened in the past.  You cannot live in two places at once (present and past) because you will always lean more towards the past and never fully make it in the present.

Yes…it happened.  Yes…it probably hurt.  Yes…your feelings may be validated. Yes…it wasn’t fair.

Now it is your choice whether or not to continue to live in the angst of what happened or to move forward with your life.  You are the only one who can make that decision.  No one else can make it for you.  No matter how “saved and sanctified” you are.  No one is immune just because they walk with Jesus.

Here is a simple prayer to release bitterness and walk in freedom:

Father, I come to you and I ask that you reveal every bitter thought and action I have been living with and seeing through.  I ask that you reveal the deep hidden things within me that have been so rooted in bitterness that I am not able to move forward.  I repent before you Father for holding onto this cancer in my soul and allowing it to consume me.  You did not create me to walk this way.  You created me to love as you love and forgive as you forgave.  Right now, I forgive ____________ for __________ and I release them to you.  I also forgive myself for holding onto the bitterness of the offense(s).  Lord, cleanse me of the pollution of bitterness and help me to stay free no matter what situations I may face in my life.  I thank you for the cleansing that Your precious blood provides and I ask that it not only covers me but covers __________.  Abba, I thank you for hearing this prayer.  Amen

Add to what you want to it.  Just don’t make it complicated.  Often times we think we have to pray these long elaborate prayers, but we don’t.  We overcomplicate our faith when it is really simple.  The gospel was simple.  Let’s get back to the simplicity of following Christ.

Love, Faythe