Matthew 11:28-30 HCSB – Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
God wants you to experience freedom from bitterness through forgiveness!
You are consumed by a specific moment in time
You begin to lose your identity
Ruth 1:16-17 HCSB – But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
Ruth 1:20 HCSB – “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter.”
Bitterness makes us blind to the source of bitterness
Bitterness makes us blind to God’s goodness
Ruth 1:21 HCSB – I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Bitterness makes us blind to God’s faithfulness
Ruth 1:22 HCSB – So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Ruth 1:8 HCSB – Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.
Psalm 136
Bitterness makes us blind to its growth
Identify and Call It Out
Forgive Quickly
Colossians 3:13 NLT – Make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Pray for Them
Matthew 5:43, 44 HCSB – You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.