Bitterness
Surrender your right to feel anger and bitterness, admit that your thinking has not solved the problem. Your thinking and feelings have magnified the problem and must be surrendered to His thinking and feelings. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
Paul implies here that the only way to forgive anyone is to do so through yielding your thinking and feelings to Christ. You may have tried to forgive the person in the past; it could be that you even have punished yourself for not being a good enough Christian to stop feeling and thinking the way you do about them. The answer is that you cannot do it through your own power.
As Paul looked on those who had wronged him (and they were many) he pictured Jesus on the cross. As He was on the cross, He was looking down through time and saw every sin that would be committed, and His choice on the cross was to forgive each and every one of them, even the ones that would be committed against you. Paul chose to stop going by his own thinking and feelings and make a conscience choice to go by Christ’s. Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. This choice begins with the first step of humbling yourself and submitting your thinking and feelings to God. Submit your wounded heart and spirit, and it will amaze you how quickly He can heal it.
The second step in this humbling process is that of resisting the Devil and drawing nigh to God.
The act of resisting is summed up in the act of drawing nigh. You cannot resist the Devil by your own power, but as you draw nigh to God, the Devil must flee. One of my favorite illustrations of the Father’s response to us is the prodigal son. I have heard it said it is just as far back to the house as it was when you left. This may be true, but it is not as far back to the Father. The Bible tells us that the Father was watching and when he saw His son a great way off He ran to meet him.
James reinforces this thought when he says draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Every step you take toward God is equal to two. The blessed thing about the story is that the son was in the Fathers embrace long before he reached the house; it was the Father that ultimately brought the son back to the house.
The Bible tells us that the Devil is limited in where he can go, and what he can do by the Father. The Devil must keep a certain distance from God, as you draw nigh to Him, the Devil must flee. How do you draw nigh to God? The answer is basic: through prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance. You may say you have been doing those things and it hasn’t worked. No, you have been doing those things while filled with pride and being resisted by the Father.
You may have been doing the right things, but with the wrong spirit, God was pushing you away. Once you come in a humbled spirit, you will find the Father responds differently to you. Look at these verses:
- Psalm 34:18 “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
- Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
- Isaiah 57:15 “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
Humility is precious in the sight of God, He wants to receive you but you must come on His terms.
