There is one form of poison that is worse for the person giving it than the intended victim. The Bible speaks quite a bit about this particular poison for this very reason. What is this poison? It is strychnine? It is cyanide? Nope, far worse and much more deadly. It is bitterness. Bitterness can ruin a person. Bitterness can ruin a person's future. The most amazing thing about bitterness? It's completely avoidable.
We don't have to be bitter. Notice what the Bible says about bitterness in Ephesians 4:31 "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:" Put away the bitterness! If the Lord gives us clear direction to do something, that clearly means He will enable us to do that thing. We can put away bitterness of spirit. The question is why should we?
The answers to this question can also be found in the Word of God. Bitterness causes defilement. Notice this verse with me: Hebrews 12:15 "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" Imagine with me a concrete sidewalk. Imagine with me a tree growing up beside that sidewalk. Do you know what will happen after time? The roots of that tree will grow up under the sidewalk. Eventually, the roots will cause the sidewalk to crack and crumble, and what was once a useful walkway has become defiled. Bitterness will do the same to you and me. We can start our lives in a condition that makes us useful, but if we allow bitterness to settle in, it will grow from a small seed of anger into a root of bitterness that defiles our whole life.
Let's look at another passage of scripture: Romans 3:12-18 "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes."
This passage is to me very sad. This is what bitterness will do to a person--bitterness will make you do things and say things that normally you wouldn't do. Bitterness will cause you to lose your fear of God. Reread that passage and notice all the negative characteristics of this person: unprofitable, none that doeth good, deceit, poison of asps, cursing and bitterness, shed blood, destruction and misery, no peace, no fear. And we wonder why people who are eaten up with bitterness are so unhappy.
I am glad to report this afternoon that bitterness can be averted. There is a cure! Let's look at one last passage of scripture: Exodus 15:22-25 "So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,"
The people of Israel were terribly upset. They had traveled three days and all of sudden they had no water! The only water they had was bitter water--they couldn't drink it! What where they to do? They could sit around and complain and mope and carry on about how unfair it was that they didn't have any water. Notice what Moses did--he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree. Not just any tree, but a specific tree that when Moses threw it into the water, it was made sweet.
If you or someone you know, is being consumed by this root of bitterness, there is only one thing to be done. Take them to this same tree--that old rugged Cross that Jesus Christ bled and died on for my sins and your sins--including the sin of bitterness. Here's a simple three step method for rooting up the bitterness in your heart: 1) Ask God's forgiveness for your bitterness, 2) Ask those you are bitter towards for their forgiveness. 3) And as the recent Disney movie "Frozen" says, "LET IT GO!!!" Forget whatever is in the past that is causing you to grow bitter, cause if you don't, that root will begin to grow again and it will be much harder to get rid of it the second time.
