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The Cost of Bitterness

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13

The woman who wrote this letter thought revenge would bring closure. She was wrong: "I found my husband with another woman. Although he begged me for forgiveness, I wanted my pound of flesh, so I filed for divorce, even though our kids asked me not to. Two years later my husband was still trying to get me back, but I wanted none of it. He hurt me and I wanted revenge. Finally, he gave up, married a young widow with two children and rebuilt his life without me. They're all so happy, and I'm just a lonely, miserable woman who let bitterness ruin her life." Now, there's no question, infidelity is wrong. But without forgiveness, bitterness is all that's left! There comes a point at which anger is no longer just an emotion - it's a driving force. Like cocaine, you need larger and more frequent doses. Once that happens, you move even further from forgiveness, because without your anger you've no source of energy at all. It's what drives hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the Skinheads. Without bitterness they've no reason to exist! If you take bigotry from the racist, revenge from the zealot, chauvinism from the sexist, what's left? God says, "forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you," because bitterness is fatal. It kills your soul. So how do you stop yourself from becoming bitter when you've been hurt? By looking into the face of the one who hurt you and instead, seeing the face of the One who showed you mercy when nobody else would've given you another chance!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me see that without forgiveness to others I am only hurting myself. Help me forgive – as you forgive me. In Jesus' Name, Amen