Om Sai Ram.
Years ago there was a terrible outbreak of disease in a tiny village in a remote part of Africa. Both children and adults were getting sick and overcome with nausea. Several weeks passed, and the sickness became widespread, and people started dying. Word of the disease reached the main city in that area, and the experts were dispatched to try to figure out what was causing the problem. They soon discovered that the water was contaminated. The village got its water supply from a mountain stream that was fed from a spring, so the experts decided to trek upstream and hopefully find the source of pollution. They traveled for days and finally came to the mouth of the stream. But on the surface, they found nothing wrong. Puzzled they decided to send some divers down to search as closely to the spring's opening as possible. What the divers discovered shocked the experts. A large mother pig and her baby piglets were wedged right at the opening of the spring. Evidently they had fallen in, drowned, and somehow gotten stuck there. Now all that crystal clear, pure mountain spring water was being contaminated as it flowed past the decomposing remains of those dead pigs. In no time after the divers were able to extricate the pigs, the water began to flow clean and pure once again.
In out lives, something similar takes place. We have all had negative things happen to us. May be last week, last month, or ten years ago somebody hurt us. And too often, instead of letting it go and giving it to God, we hold on to it. We don't forgive, and just as those pigs soured that crystal clear water, our own lives become contaminated. The roots of bitterness take hold. If you begin to forgive the people who have offended you and release all those hurts and pains, the bitterness will leave you and you will begin to see that crystal clear water once again. You will begin to experience the joy, peace and freedom God intended you to have. That is why the holy Bible says “Search my heart, Oh God, and point out anything to me that makes you sad.” We need to search our hearts and make sure that we haven’t let any bitterness take hold. Just like those pigs trapped in beneath the water, one day the contamination will show up in your life. And it will cause you only pain and sorrow. Forgiveness is the key to being free of toxic bitterness. The scriptures talk about being quick to forgive. The longer we wait, the harder it is going to be. The longer we hold on to resentments, the deeper the roots of bitterness grow.
----Joel Osteen
Om Sai Ram.
Topic: Roots of Bitterness.. (Read 1075 times)