For as long as I have heard about Freedom in Christ, one of the key steps has been a focus on bitterness vs forgiveness. The philosophy is that the cure to bitterness is forgiveness, and if we are not forgiving we must be in bondage to bitterness.
At the beginning of the journey, I thought that’s what the Bible taught. However, this far along, including our home church journey into questioning what the Bible “really” says on so many things we grew up with, I now realize that bitterness and forgiveness are separate issues.
By that, I mean that the Bible teaches us how to be free of bitterness by turning from depending on our flesh (our “sarky” self-dependence) and turning to faith in God-centered on setting our minds on his Holy Spirit.
One thing to clarify is that people sometimes have difficulty separating the hurts and injustices they have experienced from the sarky (self-centered) ways they have handled those hurts and injustices. Since bitterness is one of the fruits of a sarky focus, people think they have to stop feeling hurt in order to stop feeling bitter.
However, when we realize that our hurts are one part of the story, and our sarky-bitterness is a different part of the story, we can let God lead us to freedom from the sarky-bitterness as our modus-operandi in handling such things, and learn to depend on him for the healing of our brokenheartedness and the binding up of our wounds.[1]
Join our home church in exploring how we can be free from bitterness by changing our minds from sarky self-dependence to Spirit-filled God-dependence. In our next study, we will begin showing what God’s word “really” says about forgiveness, and how to apply this distinctive facet of Freedom in Christ to our lives. We will also begin looking at other aspects of our freedom that cover all the areas where forgiveness is not required.
© 2018 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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