God Can Heal the Bitterness of Life – Part 2

By Greg Sanders

Mix in the power of God.

We all have a right to be bitter. Every person you meet on the street and sit by on the pew has a right to be bitter about something. But there is something greater than your right to be bitter. It is your opportunity to be healed. God can heal the roots of bitterness in your life. Welcome to part 2 of “Healing the Bitterness of Life.”

Today’s Lesson: To get bitterness out, we must mix in God’s power.

2 Kings 4:38 Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.” 39 One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. 40 The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 41 Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Healing came not because they took out the bad, but because they mixed something in. We don’t overcome bitterness in our life by taking out our hurts. We get over bitterness by mixing in God’s power.

Have you ever been told to do something by Scripture or perhaps by the Holy Spirit that did not make sense? The instructions in 2 Kings made no sense either. “Pour in some flour.” Really? Flour has no healing power. The men knew this, but they poured it in anyway. Why? Because pouring in the flour was pouring in God’s power, and pouring in His healing. When we obey God’s Word, we are mixing in His power. Often God will instruct us to do something that humanly speaking makes no sense so that He gets all the glory.

So many times we try to mix in everything except the power of God to fix our issue. We mix in self-help. We mix in the opinion of others. We usually mix in thoughts of people who have failed in the same area. We ask broke people how to mange money. We ask people shooting at each other about marital advice. We ask confused people how to find the will of God. We mix in our own ideas.

Sometimes we read these accounts and we think, “Why did God bother to work in such simple tasks?” Here is your answer: They included Him in the simple task.

We must learn to mix in the power of God to every situation we face. Our bitterness will not be healed until we mix in the power of God.

The Lord has made this so real to me personally. We spend all of our time trying to take out the roots of bitterness. But even if we are successful in taking out the roots, the bitterness is still in there.

We cannot take out enough hurt. We cannot take out enough pain. We cannot take out enough mistakes. There has to be a supernatural work of God to deal with the bitterness in our hearts.

There has to be a mixing in of a change agent. That agent is the power of God. If you are dealing with bitterness today, mix in obedience to God’s Word

One of the great illusions of our day is that we can have Jesus’ life without following Jesus’ way.– John Ortberg

To experience the life of Jesus, we must embrace the words of Jesus. It’s His Word that changes what is in our hearts.

Today’s Challenge: Are you dealing with the bitterness of life in God’s way or your own way? Make sure you don’t spend all of your effort in trying to get bitterness out. Mix in God’s power.

Pray this prayer regarding bitterness in your life: Lord I see the hurt that harboring bitterness brings to my life. Forgive me of every part I have played in allowing it to be there. Today I choose to mix in Your power, my obeying Your word, and asking for Your help. Continue to speak to me regarding the right steps to take and I will be faithful to follow. Thank you, Jesus, for setting me free. Amen.

Have a great weekend!

Greg

P.S.

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