From John Collins Ministries:
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” Hebrews 12:14-15 (NKJV).
Bitterness is
something that we must be on guard against and we must have complete honesty
with ourselves if we are to monitor our hearts so that we can repent if we find
ourselves gone astray. Bitterness will
creep up on you and it is easy to allow to happen. We like to think of
ourselves as deserving the best and we become very offended when others hurt
us, reject us and when we perceive that we have not received our ‘due’.
We must be careful to find the balance of
self-worth and humility. Sometimes people just don’t think things through
with faith.
Do you deserve health, happiness, wealth, love, respect, honor, recognition or
to walk through this life without hurt? Does the Bible promise that?
What about Lazarus? What about our dear Lord Jesus Christ who
not only died on the Cross for us but was rejected, told he had a demon, was
cursed and taunted, beaten and tormented and forced to carry his own instrument
of death?
God does
not want us to hurt but there must be a desire for God inside of us and we must
come to recognize His lessons and His love. There will
be seeds planted in our hearts; seeds of love, anger, hate, joy, bitterness,
forgiveness and the list just goes on and is replenished regularly. We must
make the choice about which seeds we choose to water and which seeds we choose
to pluck out.
We are the children of God and
we have Jesus. This world is evil and has no hold upon us. Our home is in
heaven and if this is what we know then we should act like it. Remember that we
are not promised a blissful life on earth but we are promised that blissful
life in heaven, but you have to get there first.
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper;I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NKJV).
