How to Overcome Bitterness and Regain Peace
To learn how to overcome bitterness, you must understand how Satan uses it against you. What is bitterness? It’s a futile attempt to penalize yourself for another’s sin. A bitter person withholds forgiveness, wants revenge, and grows more resentful by the day.
Think about the truth of this statement.
Bitterness and maggots have one thing in common. They both feed on death. Betsy Wise 2021
Maggots swarm and feed on dead things. It’s nature’s way of eating and multiplying to decompose matter.
Similarly, bitterness gnaws away at a person eating them alive from the inside out. Offenses get bigger and bigger. The longer you meditate on death-filled thoughts, bitterness can destroy your body, mind, and spirit.
When you’re bitter, you concentrate on what someone did to you or rehash unfavorable situations over and over. Bitterness lodges in your soul when you dwell on mistreatments, injustices, and misfortunes. Bitterness cleverly disguises itself as death by driving out light and taking your joy.
Here’s one way your soul can become embittered. A Christian serves God with clean hands and an innocent heart. Simultaneously, wicked people prosper and oppress others. If you dwell on that reality long enough, bitterness can grow roots in your soul because injustices look bigger than God.
To add insult to injury, satan deceives believers into thinking that bitterness is wisdom.
James 3:14-15 (KJV)
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
How to Overcome Bitterness: Know How It Works
Bitterness tends to make people overcritical. As the seed of bitterness grows, a person may become hostile or oversensitive. The reason is that they never deal with hurt feelings but stack them up inside like slices of uneaten bread.
Hebrews 12:14-15 instructs us to pursue peace so a nasty seed like bitterness never implants itself in your heart. You sidestep focusing on the causes of bitterness and look to the author and finisher of your faith, Jesus.
Continually pursue peace with everyone, and the sanctification without which no one will [ever] see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of God’s grace; that no root of resentment springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
If you don’t pay attention to these poisonous seeds, you’ll start to find fault in everything—people and circumstances. But first, you must be willing to take a deep look inside your heart to see what grows there. Because our hearts are deceitful, we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us.
How To Overcome Bitterness: A Few Suggestions
To combat the deadly effects of bitterness, you must learn how to not be bitter. More specifically, Christians must respond biblically. Unbridled bitterness is destructive and causes people to seek revenge, embrace anger, and hate others. Learn how to stop being bitter and resentful.
- Ask God for help: When you entertain bitter thoughts, you distance yourself from God. You may even blame Him when something happens that breaks your spirit. Satan attempts to convince you God doesn’t care by lying and encouraging you to build a wall to shield yourself from pain. By doing that, you keep out the only one who can help you. At some point, you made a decision to give the enemy a foothold into your life when you became bitter (Ephesians 4:26-27). The effects of bitterness don’t stop there. Bitterness can lead to cynicism, vengeance, self-pity, and other sins. Let the Holy Spirit lovingly pinpoint the problem you should address so you can heal.
- Stop evil in its tracks: To be free from bitterness, take the advice given in Proverbs 3:5-8. “Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way]. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord [with reverent awe and obedience] and turn [entirely] away from evil. It will be health to your body [your marrow, your nerves, your sinews, your muscles—all your inner parts] And refreshment (physical well-being) to your bones.”
- Make forgiveness a priority: Live this scripture in Ephesians 4:31-32. “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence]. Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you.”
- Talk to another Christian who overcame bitterness: Seek counsel from someone who gives godly advice and encourages you to get past your feelings. That person should be a good listener and won’t judge you for having feelings like anger and resentment.
- Let the Holy Spirit cleanse you: Many people believe that bitterness’s poison won’t hurt them. They are wrong. As soon as you identify bitterness in your soul, offer yourself to the Holy Spirit. He can purify you from unrighteousness. When you allow bitterness in your heart, you rebel against God.
Final Thoughts about How to Overcome Bitterness
None of us have God’s perception and wisdom to deal with good and evil. God knew that when He told Adam and Eve to not eat from that tree. God knows how to settle our accounts with those that treat us unfairly.
He wants you to trust Him with all your heart so bitterness vanishes. Moreover, you can keep your faith intact by rejecting bitterness every time the emotion tries to overtake you.
As I noted earlier, a bitter person resembles a maggot feeding on death. None of us want to drown in discontent because we’re intoxicated by hatred, resentment, and ill will toward others. Let God help you step away from this acidic emotion that negatively affects your life.
Lastly, meditate on this scripture when learning how to overcome bitterness.
Isaiah 38:17 (KJV)
Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.