Bitterness
 

Can someone please tell me what bitterness is? Does it even really exist?

Are you comfortable calling someone bitter just because they have disagreed with the pulpit?

Could it be that only a small percentage of people labeled as bitter are just disappointed at how things turned out in their life?

Why isn't the thing or person that caused someone that disappointment and further, bitterness what is held in contempt opposed to the person being affected?

Bitterness definately exists, but it has also become a catch-all phrase (they got bitter) for people who disagree with anything that happens and voice it.
So, I do believe there is a real bitterness that people can get....and also that there is a groupthink about people who dissent that they are though of as "bitter". It is sometimes easier to call someone bitter than address the real issue.

Bitterness is real or maybe it's just disappointment.

I don't think so. One can be disappointed without being bitter.

That's true.........I was just saying it can be one or the other.

Sorry. I misunderstood what you meant.......:haloplug

:girlpopcorn

(Hebrews 12:14) “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”


Bitterness is caused by hurts or offenses. The end result of not forgiving hurts, is bitterness. The development of bitterness is a gradual and progressive process. There are four steps to bitterness.
a. Hurts.
b. Anger.
c. Resentment.
d. Bitterness.
Hurts happen and we get angry, then comes resentment toward the individual that has hurt us. The final step is bitterness.

Symptoms of Bitterness.
All of these may not apply to every situation.
1. Insane - their reasoning is not clear or right.
2. Blind - all they can see is the offense or the bad.
3. Revenge - they want revenge at any cost.
4. Cancer - the bitterness eats away at the person like a cancer.
5. Sexual Sins - bitterness and fornication are placed in the same context of the scripture. Bitterness that is allowed to grow will lead to sexual sin on the part of the bitter person (Hebrews 12:15).
6. Irreverence - bitter people do not respect the opinion or counsel of their leaders. They are irreverent and will not listen.
7. Spreads and defiles - bitterness does not abide alone, it spreads and defiles many. (Hebrews 12:15)

Do I detect a hint of bitterness????? :killinme:killinme:killinme:killinme
Yes bitternees does exist. See Acts 8:23, Rom 3:14, Eph 4:31, Heb 12:15.

That in and of itself would not necessarily indicate bitterness, rebellion maybe, but not bitterness.

I would think that if anybody had a good excuse to be bitter it would have been Paul, but he wrote:
Philippians 4:11 - 13 (KJV) 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. [/quote]

Because the bitterness does not come from a thing or action it comes from the heart and mind of the embittered.