November 15, 2019
Everybody gets hurt. It can start early with a parent, a friend, an enemy. It could be a classmate or a colleague or a work associate. Most painful are the hurts that come inside our home from a parent, a child, or a spouse. We live in a fallen world and one of the most devastating parts of our sinfulness is that we hurt each other by what we say and do.
Or, it could be a circumstance or tragedy that has hurt you. Misunderstanding its intent, you fail to see God’s sovereign hand above it all. It could be the loving discipline of the Lord, sent to train and develop us. If we fail to understand His purposes in our training we can become angry and hurt. And hurt internalized and held onto becomes bitterness.
Bitterness is a corruption in my spirit which comes by my failure to accept and thank God for every person and circumstance He allows in my life. And bitterness in our soul is a horrible disease.
A WARNING FROM HEBREWS
… reminds us to not hold onto hurt.
“See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:15)
Bitterness will always ...
THE REMEDY
… is the grace of God. When we are under difficulty or hardship, we must cry out to God and give thanks. Responding to our circumstances and the people who hurt us with humility and forgiveness unleashes the grace of God, for God “resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
Instead of harboring hurt, we learn and grow and become better, not bitter. By God’s grace, no person or circumstance can hurt us, but develop us into Christlikeness if we make the choice to see it from God’s perspective and respond as He instructs.
If you look closely, there are probably some broken places in your heart where you have never accepted God’s sovereign working and thanked God. There are people that you still need to forgive and release to from your courtroom (where you are judge, jury, and executioner) to God’s courtroom. As you do, you will discover that nothing can really hurt the true, forgiving believer for their God works “all things together for good” for His purposes to conform them to the image of His Son!
February 20, 2025
If you have questions about how real, how present, how personal and intimate the Lord is, then just read six words of travelogue in Luke’s journal as he traveled with Paul.
February 18, 2025
I have known many people who have had great joy and power in the midst of great suffering. It is humbling that the slightest inconveniences deter many of us from following God. We have not gotten to the bottom—settled the issue. Most often, we live for our comfort, reputation, or gain. When any of those goals are touched, we are troubled and discontent.
February 17, 2025
The repentant who finds God gains everything. “He who has God and everything else,” said C.S. Lewis, “has no more than he who has God alone.”
