We live in the real world, and we all get hurt by people from time to time. Sometimes, it’s a small cut, but sometimes people leave us with gaping wounds. Anger is a normal response to injustice and hurt, but if anger isn’t resolved, it soon turns into resentment and bitterness–which sour our attitudes and poison every relationship.
Bitterness is one of the chief causes of emotional stress and stress-related illnesses. We relive painful events over and over, and we rehearse ways we will get revenge. Our relationship with God becomes shallow and empty. Our lives are consumed with the hurt inflicted on us, but quite often, the person who hurt us isn’t even aware of our daily emotional pain, and he or she might not even care.
The only remedy to break this pattern of bitterness is to forgive the one who hurt us. No, it won’t be easy. The choice to forgive, though, opens the floodgates of God’s presence and power. We just have to give up our bitterness first.
LIFE PROMISES FOR LEADERS Zig Ziglar
Luke 17:4 (NLT)“If your brother sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, “I repent,” you shall forgive him.”