Thursday, March 4, 2010

No Bitter Root

I read this yesterday:
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Wednesday, March 03 2010

"See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." - Hebrews 12:15
In business and life the opportunity to harbor bitterness for a wrong suffered is great. We are given plenty of opportunities to grow bitter from relationships that bring hurt and pain. The writer of the Hebrews passage above admonishes us not to miss the grace of God so that we won't take up bitterness as a response to life's pain. He cautions us against this because he knows that a bitter root grows and grows until it eventually defiles many others through a wake of bitterness. If bitterness is allowed to take root, we become imprisoned to it. God's grace will no longer have as great an effect in our lives. We become ineffective, insensitive, and spiritually dead. We can even become physically ill from it. God does not live in bitterness. He lives in grace. He has provided grace for every person to walk in.

One day I was challenged to deal with an individual who hurt me terribly. I was faced with a decision. Would I choose bitterness, or would I choose grace? Oh, how my natural tendency was to choose bitterness. But God provided the courage to choose grace. With that grace came freedom - a freedom to love and even accept the person who was the source of such pain.

This is the real place where Christ's power is most revealed. We cannot live without His supernatural grace. Are you in need of grace today? It is there for the receiving. It will take courage to accept it and walk in it. This will be your step to freedom.

I totally agree with the above. But I also have questions and sometimes it's easier read than done. What do you do when the "source of such pain" is another Christian who should be "choosing grace" ALSO? What do you do if let's say they were a leader in the church? Is it wrong to feel like they should be the one to take the first step to mend this situation? Is that type of thinking, the start of bitterness?
How do you mend a situation where both parties feel they are right? Is there no middle ground?
Lord, I pray for your strength, guidance and wisdom to know the right thing to do.