READ: Hebrews 12:3-15
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:” – Ephesians 4:31
I define bitterness as a long- standing degenerated unforgiveness. The word “degenerate” is defined as “to pass into a worse state than one which is considered normal or desirable”. Thus, when a situation passes from one stage to a worse state, it can be described as degeneration.
Unforgiveness which stays in your heart for a long period of time, degenerates into bitterness. The cardinal sign of bitterness is that it begins to poison other people (Hebrews 12:15).
A good example of a bitter per- son is a woman who has been hurt by a man. The story line is often similar: The man approached you and told you, “I love you, honey. You are the sweetest lady I’ve ever known, and I want to love you.” You believed him. What you didn’t know was that he had told other ladies these same stories. You were a virgin and wanted to remain so until you married, but he con- vinced you to give in to him, with the promise that he would marry you anyway. So he began sleeping with you. You did things you never dreamt of doing with your body.
In fact, you also had to commit several abortions because you were not ready for babies. Then, one day he lets out the bomb, that he cannot marry you after all. Now, you bear this man a grudge. You begin to hate him with a passion, and with time, you have come to hate all men. Your hurt has become a longstanding degenerated type of unforgiveness bitterness.
Beware of becoming bitter after bad experiences!