"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31-32)
What is anger? Why does it have such destructive power? What's its effect? How can we turn bitterness into forgiveness?
In a sharing meeting of a fellowship in Hangzhou, a speaker states, "Anger stems from the past offense that causes your deep displeasure or resentment toward somebody. It is the painful memory of the past hurt." As the enemy of right relationships, it destroys friendship and turns your friend into foe. Yet it produces the most destructive fruit: destroying that angry person.
Why do people get angry? Anger is listed as the most terrible thing that happens to us. Like a fatal germ, it swallows us up. But why we still cling to it?
Several reasons may explain:
1. People get angry when they feel it isn't fair.
We get angry because we feel it isn't fair. To rationalize our anger, we imagine them in our hearts partially and focus on where they fail us.
2. Anger makes people feel superior.
When someone offends or hurts us, we feel superior to him or her, saying to ourselves, "I will never do that!" In favor of that sense of superiority, we hold on to anger.
3. We like "recording."
Sometimes we hang on to resentment to leave room for our mistakes and find balance.
4. We are fond of grudges
It's strange that we keep our wounds from being healed up, just to find pleasure from them. Offended by others, we would like to care our wounds and feel grief for ourselves.
Anger develops into bitterness
Bitterness is the most distinctive among sins, which those angry people use to punish their enemies, while it turns out that the victims are themselves. Sometimes your enemies don't even know their mistakes.
Therefore, anger is useless to others but destructive to ourselves. "If we hold on to anger, it will evolve into bitterness that harms our health, thoughts, characters and our relationships with God."
Forgiveness sets us free
The only way to get freedom from anger and bitterness is forgiveness. "Forgiving means that you undertake that mistake or hurt and forget it. But it pays you a high price to forgive." The speaker claims.
If you want to forgive others, you need to pay the price of the hurt they caused or their sins. Christ who forgave us had to pay price for our sins and that's the reason why he was crucified on the cross.
How to turn from bitterness to forgiveness
1. Know that God Judges Fairly.
God has jurisdiction over all things including people's fault. The Bible says, "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord." (Romans 12:19)
2. Confess to God.
If someone hurt you seriously, entrust God. But if there is bitterness in your heart, you're sinning, then you shall entrust God for your bitterness.
3. Crucify anger and bitterness
Anger and bitterness are felonies, the most deadly among sins.We must sentence them to death, otherwise, they will kill us.
4. Forgive others as Christ forgave you
Forgiveness is a choice though we don't want to forgive others. But God sees our choices rather than our feelings. Jesus showed his one-sided forgiveness to us, so we should imitate Jesus to forgive others unilaterally.
5. Believe that the Holy Spirit turns your forgiveness into reality
Forgiving and removing bitterness results from our cooperation with the Spirit. We must work with the Spirit. We choose forgiveness and believe that the Spirit can help us to forgive. "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13)
Translated by: Karen Luo
