Personal Development on Bitterness

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Genesis 4:6-7, Exodus 32:19-20, Job 5:2, Ephesians 4:26-27, Hebrews 12:15, Psalm 37:8

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love ...

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Author

F.B. Meyer

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1 Samuel 1:9-20, Job 42:1-6, Jeremiah 31:15-17, Psalm 55:22 , Philippians 4:6-7 , Matthew 11:28-30

As we pour out our bitterness, God pours in his peace.

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Author

Jerry Bridges

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Genesis 4:6-7 , Proverbs 14:29, Job 5:2, Ephesians 4:31-32, Hebrews 12:15, Psalm 37:8

Uncontrolled temper is soon dissipated on others. Resentment, bitterness, and self-pity build up inside our hearts and eat away at our spiritual lives like a slowly spreading cancer.

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Author

Nelson Mandela

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Ephesians 4:31-32, Psalm 34:18, Luke 23:34, Genesis 50:20-21, Exodus 14:13-14, Job 42:10

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.

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Author

Rick Warren

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Proverbs 14:30, Exodus 16:2-8 , 2 Chronicles 32:7-8, Matthew 6:25-27, Ephesians 4:31-32, Psalm 34:8-14

It’s not just what you eat that matters, it’s what eats you. You can have all the right macrobiotics and organic food, but if your body is filled with resentment, worry, fear, lust, guilt, anger, bitt...

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A Need to Heal the Past

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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Psalm 147:3, Jeremiah 30:17, Matthew 11:28-30, James 5:16, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 33:6

One of the challenges, at least in the western church, is an inability to deal with our wounds in a healthy way. Our training as Christians has been focused on Bible studies, small groups, and Sunday ...

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Adapted from Psalm 73:1–28

Prayer of Confession All: Certainly God is good to his people, to those pure in heart, but as for me, I nearly stumbled; I nearly lost my sure footing. I struggle with envy as I look at the those in ...

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A Mission-field Tragedy Turned to the Glory of God

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The Pastor's Workshop

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Romans 8:28, John 12:24, Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28, Acts 1:1-11, Acts 8:4-5, Acts 13:13-52, Acts 6:9-10, Acts 16:25-34

Sometimes what seems like a failure is actually the seed of God’s work. As Mark Batterson tells the story, it started with David and Svea Flood. Sent to the Congo by a church in Sweden, they helped es...

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Augustine of Hippo

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Psalm 119:103, Exodus 1:14, Luke 15:11-32, John 4:1-42, John 15:9-11, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 34:8

Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. He was made sweet to you because he liberated you. You had been bitter to yourself when you were occupied only with yourself. Drink the sweetness.

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Author

Frederick Buechner

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Scripture

Genesis 27:41, Exodus 15:23-25 , Job 10:1, Ephesians 4:31 , Hebrews 12:15 , Psalm 73:21-22

To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you...

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Author

David Burrell

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I have come to realize that one lives either by gratitude or resentment; there is no middle ground!

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Erecting a Life Around Dysfunction

Author

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

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John 5:6, Isaiah 43:18-19, 2 Peter 1:3, James 1:4, Hebrews 12:1-2

Remember Miss Haversham in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations? Her entire life was defined by the fact that she was jilted on her wedding day. People can become very attached to their pain and i...

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Author

Edward Herbert

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Genesis 50:19-21 , Exodus 34:6-7, Proverbs 17:9, Matthew 6:14-15, Luke 23:34 , Psalm 103:10-12

He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself.

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Not Going to Church

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Source Unknown

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Hebrews 10:24-25, Psalm 133:1, Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:27, Matthew 18:20, Acts 2:42

As was the normal routine on a Sunday morning, a wife got ready for church. She got up, had breakfast, showered, got dressed, put on makeup and was ready to go. It was just as she was ready to leave t...

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It is Well

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Matthew 5:4, Psalm 147:null, Psalm 34:18, Revelation 21:1-8, 2 Corinthians 1:3-12, Romans 8:18-28, John 11:null, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, John 14:27, 1 Peter 5:7, Daniel 6:, Psalm 46:, Psalm 23:, Job 1:, Job 2:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:

If you ever travel to Jerusalem and are looking for sites to see, beyond all the ‘must-see’ sites related to Ancient Israel, the Temple Mount, and the sites associated with Jesus, you might venture to...

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Not a Single Note of Joy

Author

Eugene Peterson

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Psalm 2:1-4, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Mark 8:36, Colossians 3:23-24, Romans 12:2, Psalm 127:1-2

Months of struggle, of strategy, of sacrifice all paid off in a landslide victory for President Richard Nixon in 1972. On election night his aide Charles Colson was in the place he had always wanted t...

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Author

Roger J. Burdette

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It is not the experience of today that drives us mad; it is the remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday.

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Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Healing

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Isaiah 40:31, Hebrews 12:11, 2 Corinthians 2:9-10, Philippians 1:12-14, 1 Peter 1:6-7

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. ...

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What is the Christian Imagination Deficit? How Do We Fix It?

Author

Brian Brown

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There Are No Ordinary Things J. R. R. Tolkien tells a short story about an ordinary fellow who just wants to finish a painting. Over time, he is constantly distracted by the requests of his neighbors...

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Father-God, our burden bearer; Jesus,

Author

Richard Herman

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Matthew 5:14-16, Isaiah 9:6, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Revelation 21:4, Jeremiah 30:17

Father-God, our burden bearer; Jesus, God the Son and lover of our souls; Spirit of God–giver of life and power: Thank You! Thank You for those we love and those who love us. Thank You for mothers and...

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The Lord calls us to examine the wounds

The Lord calls us to examine the wounds of the Risen One and to see there the depth of his love for us. Let us therefore approach the throne of God in confidence as we pray for the people of God in Ch...

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Prayer for Families

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Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who who creates families for our belonging: We ask for your continual care for the homes in which your people live. Keep them from all bitterness, arrogance, and the...

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Wait

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Martin Luther King, responding to criticism from Southern White Pastors with respect to Civil Rights Activism: Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to s...

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Love for the Long Haul

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

Isaiah 30:18, James 5:7-8, Psalm 37:7

Patience is love for the long haul; it is bearing up under difficult circumstances, without giving up or giving in to bitterness. Patience means working when gratification is delayed. It means taking ...

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Fasting Reveals That Which Controls Us

Author

Richard J. Foster

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Scripture

Matthew 4:4, Daniel 10:3, Psalm 69:10, Acts 13:2-3, Joel 2:12, Isaiah 58:6

More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. … We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, ...

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Max Lucado

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I Choose Love...No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves. I Choose Joy...I will invite my God to be the God of circumstan...

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“My Cross to Bear”: Joni Eareckson Tada on Paralysis

Author

John Piper

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Scripture

Acts 2:28, 2 Corinthians 1:5, 1 Peter 1:15-16, Colossians 3:5-10, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3:10

Please know that when I take up my cross every day I am not talking about my wheelchair. My wheelchair is not my cross to bear. Neither is your cane or walker your cross. Neither is your dead-end job ...

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Author

Aristotle

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Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

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Author

Blaise Pascal

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Criticism

Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful.

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