The following post is from the Wednesday, March 3, 2010 TGIF Volume 1 by Os Hillman.
“See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” – Hebrews 12:15
In business and life the opportunity to harbor bitterness for a wrong suffered is great. We are given plenty of opportunities to grow bitter from relationships that bring hurt and pain. The writer of the Hebrews passage above admonishes us not to miss the grace of God so that we won’t take up bitterness as a response to life’s pain. He cautions us against this because he knows that a bitter root grows and grows until it eventually defiles many others through a wake, no a tsunami, of bitterness. If bitterness is allowed to take root, we become imprisoned to it. God’s grace will no longer have as great an effect in our lives, not because God’s grace is not sufficient, but because we chose to hold onto and carry the bitterness. And, like a big rock it weighs us down; we become ineffective, insensitive, and spiritually dead. we can even become physically ill from it. God does not live in bitterness. He lives in in grace and in freedom. he has provided grace for every person, you included, to walk in and to be free from bitterness.
Consider the person (could be you or me), who one day is is challenged to deal with an individual who hurt them terribly. They are faced with a decision. Do they choose bitterness, or do they choose grace? Oh, how their natural tendency is to choose bitterness. But God provides them with the courage to choose grace, and with that grace comes freedom – a freedom to love and even accept the person who was the source of such great pain.
This is the real place where Christ’s power is most revealed. We cannot live without his supernatural grace. Are you in need of grace today? It is there for the receiving. It will take courage to accept it and walk in it. This will be your step to freedom and to living a victorious life!
I remember having a lot of questions growing up, and I recall doing many things I should not have done and getting into allot of trouble because of the choices I made. As a teenager and young adult, I thought I knew it all; ends up I was wrong about that! Because I thought I knew it all, I rarely, if ever, went to my father for advice or counsel. As I got older, I realized that my dad was, in fact, a vault of wisdom, and that had I sought his guidance earlier in life, I could have avoided a lot of grief and pain. Some might say I was “stuck on stupid”.
So, if you desire to experience happiness in life and at work, I encourage you to seek counsel as you face key decisions in your life and at work. And, just as listening to the counsel of our fathers is important and helpful when we are growing up, so it is important to seek the counsel of our Heavenly Father, the one who created us, loves us immeasurably, and has a wonderful plan for our lives. Emmanuel, God with us, promises to never leave us nor forsake us, so you can count on him to be there for you; turn to him and trust him, especially when the going gets tough.
If this is new to you, and you desire “a peace that passes all understanding”, ask God to reveal himself to you and to help you know that he is real. Acknowledge to him that you hurt and are unhappy and that you know you have done some things that have contributed to your own unhappiness (sin). Invite him into your life and into your heart. Put your trust in Him and his son Jesus, who died on the cross so that you and I can personally know and have a real, intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. He yearns to be involved in our lives. Ask him to change you and your life, to give you the peace and joy that you desire, and to direct the steps of your life going forward.
