***And you shall know the truth. And the truth will set you free!!!***

They departed from before Hahiroth and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, went three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah. They moved from Marah and came to Elim. At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there.
Number 33:8-9

In Numbers 33, Moses retraced the 40 encampments of Israelites in the wilderness. One of the major stopovers was Marah, which literally means “bitter”. Exodus 15:23 says, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.”

Every Christian must be prepared for disappointments in life. You might be disappointed with a person, with a situation or with what a person has done to you. Without knowing how to deal with disappointments, a believer can easily become bitter. Bitterness reproduces quickly and can be very, very dangerous to your mental and emotional well-being. The Bible warns us, “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (Heb 12:15). Bitterness comes in when one fails to appropriate the grace of God to overcome a disappointment or a hurtful experience. Hurts inevitably come; but taking up offences is a choice. You can choose not to be offended and bitter.

When then is the key to overcome bitterness? Exodus 15:25 says that Moses “cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” The key was in the tree - which is a type of cross. To gain victory over bitterness, we need to go to the cross. The cross speaks of three things:

(1) Self denial. You need to realize that you have no rights of your own. You must be willing to forfeit the right to condemn or exact vengeance on those who disappointed you.
(2) Forgiveness. This is an act of your will. Forgiveness involves both attitude and action. If you find it difficult to feel forgiving toward someone who has hurt you, try responding with kind actions. If appropriate, tell this person that you would like to heal your relationship. Give him a helping hand. Send him a gift. Smile at him. Many times you will discover that right actions lead to right feeling.
(3) Forgetting. We often cannot truly forgive unless we can forget. We need to ask God for the grace to forget the bitterness of disappointments. “Holy Forgetfulness” is tremendous. It keeps our spirit free! When someone says something against you, go quickly to God for your holy forgetfulness. Then we can look at that brother and shudder at what was said earlier.

Start practicing these steps right away so that you can triumph over the waters of Marah. Had anyone nva taste bitterness b4? I will say tt at times; I myself also experience some too. But I will say the grace of God is wonderful as through out my spiritual walk with Him, He has shown me the way n how things work out… He also taught me a lot thru signs and wonder in my lives… I remember I was once bitter against my mum, and when I put my trust in God to help me handle the situation, God really change my attitude and make me more willing to forget abt my past with my mum n change it for the better. Now my relationship with my mum was great. I will say every disappointment in life actually make u stronger when u do the above, however it can totally destroy u when u dun know how to handle it. R u willing to trust God in handling ur problems or r u still stubborn enough to want to do it on ur own? Also when ever u have bitterness in life, the devil can always use tt to stop u n hinder u from moving closer to God… The devil will use it to its advantage… In order not to let the devil win, we have to rely on God’s power. Cuz He is able to protects and defend u against the devil...

Labels: Sermon

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Bitterness!!!