Today’s exhortation – dealing with bitterroots
How do we recognise bitterroots and how do we deal with them? Here are a few of the fruits of bitter roots and evidence of their presence in our lives;blaming, gossip, inability to build lasting relationships (too judgemental), inability to love and express love, inability to trust, ridiculing, fault finding, murmuring, anger, criticalness etc. Who is accountable? We are! God holds us accountable for our sinful reactions to what happens to us. Bible says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32). Having said that even though we may be guilty, we’re not condemned if we bring our sins to Jesus for healing. He says, “I desire mercy…” (Matthew 9:13).
How do we deal with bitter roots? First we must recognise and expose the judgements we’ve made against others. Eg with our parents, a suggestion would be to ask ourselves the question; “what did my parents do that bugged me as a child?” A few e.gs may be the following – Addictions-(workaholic, hoarder, abuse..)
Control-(criticalness, manipulation, broken promises, dominant etc)
Injustice-(favoured siblings, fights, feuds, unfairly punished, lack of intimacy etc)
Rejection-(divorce, over protection, shame, insecurity, unfulfilled destinies etc)
Others- (occult involvement, cults etc). This is a small list so please pray and ask The Lord to help you find other areas you may have bitter roots. God willing, we’ll pray through the list tomorrow.
Francis Hans-Jorie
