“For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:12
Last time Friends, I reminded you of the Scriptures that exhort us to get the log out of our own eye by recognizing our sin before we go rooting around other people’s issues. Bitter women are often very content to blame others for their own sinful responses and anger. While it may be true that another person can do and say things that are hurtful and cause you to become angry it is always your choice what you choose to do with those emotions. If you do not deal with them righteously you will sin in your anger and eventually, you will become bitter.
There is only one way out of bitterness, and that is to forgive. I understand that you may not feel like forgiving, perhaps in your mind to forgive makes you a fool or a doormat but that is not so. You may also think that those who have hurt you are not deserving of your forgiveness, and you may be right. Even in the hardest things of life we must always look to Christ as our example and subject our feelings to the authority of the Word of God.
What does the Bible say about forgiving those who hurt you?
“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.” Mark 11:25-26
Those who are born again have been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ. We were so undeserving, and so unworthy of forgiveness or mercy…how can we possibly withhold forgiveness and mercy from another sinner? While the earliest manuscripts do not contain verse 26, we can still apply the heart of the verse for what Jesus is saying here is that a person who truly understands what they once were and even has an inkling of their own unworthiness will not withhold forgiveness, grace and mercy from another person. A true believer always forgives.
The very essence of grace is that I am not getting some horrible thing that I deserve and the essence of mercy is I am getting something I most certainly do not deserve…which is grace…forgiveness….justification….redemption…sanctification…reconciliation… how, dear reader, would you and I dare to withhold from another undeserving one this grace that has been lavished upon us?
Forgiveness is the only way to be done with bitterness. Please do not use the fear being taken advantage of by the one you forgive as reason to continue on this way. In cases where your adversary is unrepentant your willingness to forgive will be spoken to the Lord alone. It would be inappropriate to verbally convey forgiveness to someone who has not asked you for it.
The desire of your heart must become to forgive those who have hurt you. Ask the Lord to give you a hatred for the sins of anger and bitterness you are laden with and a heart that beats to glorify God through how you live your life. He will take it from there.
In Ezekiel 11:19-20 the Lord says, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”