Bitterness is real

Ephesians 4:29-32
29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

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So working this backwards, we know that the enemy will tempt us to be cruel, cold, and uncompassionate with one another, leading us also to be unforgiving, forgetting the cost of the forgiveness we have be given through the sacrifice of the Christ.

We know then also that the enemy will put in front of us circumstances that will leave us with reason to be bitter, reasons to have rage, reasons to be angry, reasons to want to lash out physically, and reasons to slander others, feeding into unholy thoughts that leave us no longer seeking to honor the will of the Father through His Truth, but instead turningbour thoughts inwardly, focussing solely on our own state.

The Spirit of Truth only recognizes selfless sincerity found in sacrificial acts of loving charity, and, obedient service. If we are to be recognized eternally by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we must be able to put ourselves aside and allow that same Holy Spirit to act through us here. As faith without works is dead.

No, it is very unlikely any of us can maintain holiness moment to moment throughout our entire lives. As most Christians would agree they were worldly at one point, and if not that, we know we are sinful still, likely in ways grace has not shown us yet. (As grace inlg shows us what we can handle at a given moment.)

So we are called to be aware of what comes out of out mouths, mainly because what is in our hearts is corruptible. The only thing we can really strive to control is what comes out of our mouths, and what acts we can serve others by.

I find workplaces are the hardest situations to keep control over what I say and how I act. Poor pay, disgruntled co workers, bad employers and management, all these things lead to me turning inward and finding bitterness ready to bear some bad fruit from my tree of discontent.

I also struggle with worldly friendships; those relationships that do not have God as the foundation. I find it is easy to either be envious or create jealousy. We compare our lives, sharing struggles or sharing victories. But in essence this is selfish. All worldly relationship are self propelled, and we keep these relationships because they give us meaning. But we know that life is actually meaningless, and purpose is solely found in the will of God being acted upon.

I wrote this tonight for myself really. I have had a bad few weeks and my pay is so low I have to go into debt to make it to work the next few weeks. I was very bitter about this. And I found myself becoming more and more depressed and even thinking of suicide. This is when I googled 'bitterness'. I found this exert in Ephesians, and decided to focus on it with not just me in mind, but us, my spiritual family.

My lesson? *Take myself out of the equation, find a way to honor God.*

We are deeply loved.