Don't Let Bitterness Take Root

We all have unfair and unjust things happened to us. They are part of life. When we are hurt, we can choose to hold on to that pain and become bitter, or we can choose to let it go and trust God to make it up to us.

People who harbor anger often do not realize it, but they are poisoning their own lives. When we do not forgive, we’re not hurting the other person. We’re not hurting the company that did us wrong. We’re not hurting God. We’re only hurting ourselves.

If you want to live your best life now, you must be quick to forgive. Learn to let go of the hurts and pains of the past. Don’t let bitterness take root in your life.

Maybe something happened to you when you were younger, somebody mistreated you, and somebody took advantage of you. Perhaps, somebody cheated you out of a promotion or lied about you. Maybe a good friend betrayed you, and you have a good reason to be angry and bitter.

For your emotional and spiritual health, you must let that go. It doesn’t do any good to go around hating somebody. Nor does it make any sense to stay angry for what somebody’s already done to you. You can’t do anything about the past, but you can do something about the future. You might as well forgive and start trusting God to make it up to you.

Bitterness is described as a root. Think about that. You can’t see a root. It is deep down under the ground. But you can be sure of this: A bitter root will produce bitter fruit. If we have bitterness on the inside, it is going to affect every area of our lives. It will contaminate our personalities and our attitudes, as well as how we treat other people.

A lot of people are trying to improve their lives by dealing with the external fruit. They are attempting to rectify their bad habits, bad attitudes, bad tempers, or negative and sour personalities. They’re dealing with the fruit of their lives, trying to change those things, and that is noble. But the truth is, unless they get to the root, they will never be able to change the fruit. Because as long as that bitter root is growing on the inside, that problem will persist and keep popping up time and again. You may be able to control your behavior for a while or keep a good attitude for a short period of time, but have you ever wondered why you can’t really get free? Why you can’t overcome that destructive habit?

You have to go deeper. You must discover why you are so angry, why you can’t get along with other people, why you are always so negative. If you’ll look deeply and get to the root, then you’ll be able to deal with the problem, overcome it, and truly begin to change.

I'm glad that I have learnt to forgive people and not hating them. For example, my ex-roommate. My heart lightened up a lot after I have learnt to forget those deeds she did behind my back. It had poisoned my everyday-life a lot. When I bumped into her, there ain't no knife stabbing my heart. Another example is my ex-classmate, who is now my brother's girlfriend. I was really devastated after knowing she betrayed me. Anyway, I let my past go and I'm now living a happy life of mine.

No hatred. No grudge.

I know it might be hard for some of us but trust me, hatred, grudge, resentment, bitterness do you no good. I believe all of us want to live in the world of light, not darkness.