The Chain of Bitterness

Bitterness, comparison, envy; these chains are some of the most deadly that we can find ourselves bound up in. We feel as if we aren’t good enough, and so we look at people who seemingly have it all and begin to resent both their gifting and our own, along with the God who gave out those giftings.

Aaron Coe wants us to realize the true danger of bitterness, that if we let it in, it will creep into the deepest parts of us and eat away at our souls. But there is good news. Jesus came not only to bring us from death to life but to give us life in the full. He has conquered each and every chain, including the deadly chain of bitterness, and we can look to Him to walk free of it forever.

All discipline is hard, but anything good in our lives requires a level of discipline. This goes for our spiritual life as well.

Discipline and discipline are from the same word.

Hebrews 12:3-8

• Jesus is our model. This means we identify with Him in our suffering. He allows discipline.
• Discipline is a sign you're part of the family. A good father disciplines his child.
• Jesus allows discipline to build us, not to just let something happen to us.
• Discipline produces the fruit of righteousness.

James 1:2-5

• Perseverance is the reason why He allows trials.

It's your choice how you choose to respond to discipline and trials. You can get bitter or you can get better

• Bitterness is self-inflicted loathing, hoping to change the situation by directing anger towards the person who wronged us. We internalize and identify with...
• what others have said about us.
• what others have done to us.
• what we've said about ourselves.
• what we've done to ourselves.

The scheme of the enemy is to influence us to think we can make the situation better, but we're actually killing ourselves. Bitterness attacks the very roots of our souls.

• Better is a person, not a principle. Jesus speaks a better word. He's the mediator of the New Covenant.
• The Old Covenant- had us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, everything based off of what we did.
• The New Covenant- Jesus has done it all and given us a new identity.
• Came to dwell among us. John 1:14
• We have been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, but Christ within me. Galatians 2:20
• If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, and the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
• There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
• We are more than conquerors. Romans 8:37

Worship and the Word is our weapon against being wounded.