This article first appeared in the October 2018 edition of “Food For Thought” Newsletter from John 6 Ministries Inc., Mt. Pearl, NL, CA
Last month’s issue of “Food For Thought” contained an article that I wrote entitled, “The Destructive Path of Bitterness.” In that article, I addressed the issue of bitterness, and the impact that it can have on us.
Satan is the deceiver of the whole world and the father of lies, and bitterness is just one of the human conditions that he uses to deceive us, and ultimately destroy any part of our lives that he can.
God created each one of us with purpose and potential. If Satan can keep us tangled up in bitterness, or any other condition that opposes God’s truth, he will do exactly that, thereby, keeping us from fulfilling God’s plan for our lives.
A Scripture that has a lot of significance to me personally is Isaiah 53:5. In the NRSV, that verse says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”
Through the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, we can be whole (complete). When God says that “by his bruises we are healed,” God isn’t just referring to physical healing, but our overall healing; physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally.
I am not living in complete health and wholeness, but I am on my way. It’s a process, and I am moving in that direction, one step at a time. I am waiting for some physical healing in my body, but by faith, I trust that will come to me in God’s perfect timing.
In the meantime, God is guiding me on a journey toward emotional and spiritual healing from the effects of negative things I have experienced. We sometimes tend to focus more on what is visible, like physical infirmities, but God knows and loves EVERY part of us, and His promise of healing includes our full health.
Because of fear, low self-esteem, and insecurity, I was unable to fully live the life that God had planned for me. I was unable to live out my God-given purpose and potential to the full degree that God intended. I’m not totally where I need to be in terms of complete healing, but I am improving over time.
Through my life circumstances, and words that were spoken to me (that were both unkind and untrue), Satan lied to me and convinced me that I was not able to do the things that God wanted me to do. He told me that I was a failure, and for far too long, I believed him. God’s truth doesn’t agree with those words though. He says, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13)
Satan desires to thwart all of God’s plans for us, but the first thing he will attempt to destroy is our fellowship with the Lord. That is why we were created. Being in relationship with us was important enough to God the Father, that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, so that through Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, our fellowship with Him could be restored. (see John 3:16)
For a long time after I heard, and believed, the message of the Gospel, I hesitated to truly commit my life to Jesus. I was afraid of being rejected because of my faith, I was afraid of losing the friends that I’d made, and the feeling plagued me that even Jesus wouldn’t really want me.
Then, I discovered two Scriptures that made the difference for me; Matthew 11:28-30, which says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” & Hebrews 4:16, which says, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
I knew I needed the rest, mercy and grace that these verses spoke of, which comes from God. I didn’t think of it in these terms at the time, but now I realize that by accepting Jesus’ invitation to come to Him, I was taking the most important step toward spiritual healing.
I have been on my journey with Jesus for a long time, and it’s been a process of healing from the heavy load of unnecessary and unwanted things from my past
Sadly, my story is not all that different from many others. The specifics of someone else’s story may not be exactly like mine. But, too many people are not fully able to be who God created them to be, because of scars and wounds from the past.
For most of the time since I asked Jesus into my life, I have lived in peace and joy. Things have been mainly straightforward to me, in terms of direction for my life, and seeing God’s grace and His goodness.
I did go through a time though, where that was not the case. I still had a strong faith in God, loved Him, believed in Him, and wanted to serve Him wholeheartedly. But, in those days, I felt more confusion and a lack of vision for the future, than I had experienced before.
When I sought the Lord about why this was the case, He showed me that I was holding onto things that had happened to me in the past.
Like many others, I’ve been through some things that God never wanted, nor planned, for me. I’ve needed God’s healing touch to restore those broken pieces of my life.
So, how do we get passed things like anger, rejection, fear, shame, guilt, regret, and so on? Many of those wounds can lead to bitterness, if we aren’t careful.
In my situation, I did develop a ‘seed’ of bitterness, but fortunately it didn’t become deeply ‘rooted.’ It is my nature to be very thankful to God, and to those whom He has placed in my path to love, support and encourage me along life’s way. If I’d had a different outlook on life, that ‘seed of bitterness’ may have turned into a full-blown ‘root of bitterness.’
In my process of healing from past hurts, the first thing I needed to do was acknowledge the things that happened to me. I needed to acknowledge the hurt that I felt, admit to myself and God that it was unfair that I went through those negative experiences, and embrace the truth of John 10:10. That verse (ESV) says, “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
When we go through difficult things, it can be easy to blame other people for those troubles. However, the truth is that we need to properly identify Satan as the one causing them. He will wreak havoc in our lives in any way he can. His ultimate goal is to take us out, and stop us from having the lives that God always intended for us.
When I really took hold of Galatians 5:1, which says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” my way of thinking shifted.
Because of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection on Calvary’s Cross, I, and all believers, can be free from Satan’s grip on our lives, regardless of what our weakness is that he uses against us.
Once we acknowledge the truth about our past hurts and experiences, even traumas that we’ve endured, we need to be willing to forgive those who have hurt us, and, in some cases, we need to forgive ourselves.
Ephesians 4:31-32 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.”
Satan is our real enemy, not other people.
This is confirmed in Ephesians 6:12 which says, “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Over the next month, I suggest that we all seek God’s truth concerning our lives, invite Him into our lives (even if we’ve done it many times before), and ask Him to reveal anything for which we need to forgive ourselves or others.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35 gives us a good illustration of the negative impact that unforgiveness can have on us. One of the ways that we can be tormented by unforgiveness is by not living in the peace that we are fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives. We’ll address that in next months’ “Food For Thought.”
Just remember, Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,”
