Resentment and Bitterness

I’m excited for two reasons. One is that this is the first blog of the year and I couldn’t wait to share it with everyone. And second we reached a year of writing our blog.  It excites Helene and I when people come up out of the blue and express how much they like reading the articles we write.  We feel so blessed because we know we are doing something with the wisdom and knowledge God has given us. It’s not about us. It’s about HIM. And having God in the center of your marriage. So that your marriage could be everything he intended it to be.  So please keep letting us know if you enjoy the blog. And please pass it on to others. I hope this next article will help you if you have and resentment and bitterness in your heart. It is definitely one root that will keep you from going to the next level in your marriage or in any part of your life. Enjoy!

Resentment and Bitterness

Have you been harboring ill feelings deep inside your soul? That are now beginning to take over your spiritual life? Have you been feeling dead inside due to the bitterness, unforgivness  an offense you have been holding on to?

Who have you been harboring these feelings about? Did those who offended you do anything to you that you haven’t done to anyone else in the past?

Has it help you to hold on to this feelings of uforgivness? Has the bitterness improved your quality of life? Has your quality of life improved as a result of clinging on to the offense?

What  fruit have you produced  in your life  because you allowed these negative attitudes fester and grow in your life?

These are just a few questions I want you to sit and think about for a while before you read this article. You might have the answers right away. But if you don’t take time and reflect on what you think is the cause of the bitterness and resentment in your life.

            Jesus talked about resentment and bitterness in Luke 17: 1-6 , and how to remove it from your life.  We are going to break it down here for you to truly understand what he meant and why he described unforgiveness to the Sycamine tree.  The Sycamine tree is a tree that grows throughout the Middle East. As you read you will see how everything in this verse is connected to the Sycamine Tree and why Jesus chose to use this tree as an example of bitterness and unforgiveness .

            In Luke 17:3 Jesus was telling the disciples how many times they needed to forgive those who sinned against them. And in verse 4 he even took it further by saying even if anyone wrongs you wether brother, wife family member friend seven times in one day and each time they TRULY repent, then they were to forgive that person for offending them.

            For most of us it’s already hard to forgive the first time.  Imagine seven! I’m sure this sounded crazy to the disciples. But, that’s why you read in verse 5 when they say “Lord, Increase our faith.” It’s like their saying “ Lord we don’t know if we have that much faith to forgive so many times in one day. You will have to increase our faith in order for us to forgive seven times a day!

            That’s when Jesus really started speaking to them about bitterness and unforgivness. He tells them in Luke 17:6 If you had the faith of a mustard seed you would say to that sycamine tree, Uproot yourself by the root and be thrown into the sea. And it should obey you. What Jesus was saying here was that bitterness and unforgiveness is like the sycamine tree. If you really want to be free of these attitudes, you can speak to this harmful, menacing life threatening growth in your life and command it to be planted in the sea.

            Some of you might be wondering why he chose a sycamine tree and not another tree like an oak tree, pine tree or a palm tree. As you continue to read you will find out why Jesus compared the sycamine tree to these ugly characteristics of unforgiveness and bitterness that are detrimental when we let them into our lives.

The Sycamine tree had a very large and deep root structure. It was known to have the deepest root structure in all the middle east. The Sycamine tree grew to thirty feet or more because the roots were so deep into the earth. Which made it very difficult to kill. No matter how hot it got in the Middle East it wouldn’t affect the tree because of the water source it had due to the deep roots. Even cutting it down to the base would not guarantee it would die because of it’s roots hidden underground would draw water from it’s sources letting it keep resurfacing again and again. So as you can see the sycamine tree was very hard to kill.

            Like the Sycamine tree bitterness and unforgiveness must be dealt with clear to the roots or they will keep springing up again and again. These roots of bitterness and unforgiveness go down deep into the human soul fed by any offense that lies hidden in our hearts. That hidden offense will cause these ugly roots to resurface in a persons life over and over again. It will take a serious decision for that person to rip the roots of bitterness and offense out of the heart once and for all. So that it can’t grow back in the future.

            The Sycamine tree was also the preferred wood for building  caskets and coffins in the Middle East.  That alone should tell you bitterness and unforgiveness are DEADLY! And harbouring them will spiritually bury you just as quick as anything else.

 The Sycamine tree grows very quickly in any environment making it accessible in many different places. 

Just as the Sycamine tree grew very quickly, so does bitterness and unforgiveness. When these fast growing ugly attitudes are allowed to grow freely, they not only spoil the condition of your own heart they ruin your relationships with other people.  And just like the sycamine tree can grow in almost any environment so does bitterness. It doesn’t matter where people are from, where they live, what their cultural background is or what level of society they belong to. Bitterness and Unforgiveness grow in human hearts everywhere!

            The Sycamine tree grew best in dry eareas where there was very little rain. Just like bitterness and unforgiveness these negative attitudes flourish when our spiritual lives are dry. You can almost guarantee you will find these characters where there is no repentence, joy and fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit.

if you permit bitterness and unforgive­ness to grow in your life, it won’t be long until these attitudes have killed your joy, stolen your peace, and canceled out your spiritual life!

The sycamine tree and the mulberry tree were very similar in appearance; the two trees even produced a fruit that looked identical. However, the fruit of the sycamine tree was extremely bitter. Its fruit looked just as delicious as a mulberry fig. But when a person tasted the fruit of the sycamine fig, he discovered that it was very bitter.

Mulberry figs were delicious and expensive. Because it cost so much it was primarily eaten by wealthier people. But the sycamine fig was cheap and affordable to poorer people. Because the poor couldn’t afford the mulberry fig, they ate the sycamine fig as a substitute. However, the sycamine fig was so bitter that it couldn’t be eaten whole. In order to eat an entire sycamine fig, they had to nibble on it a little bit at a time. After a break, the eater would return to nibble on it again, but he could never eat a entire piece of this fruit at one time; it was just too bitter to eat at one sitting.

Jesus lets us know that like the sycamine fruit, the fruit of bitterness and unforgiveness is bitter and tart. Like the fig, most people who are bitter and filled with unforgiveness chew on their feelings for a long time. They nibble on bitterness for a while; then they take a break to digest what they’ve eaten. After they have reflected deeply on their offense, they return to the memory table to start nibbling on bitterness again - taking one little bite, then another little bite, then another. As they continue to think about their offense, they internalize their bitter feelings toward those who have offended them. In the end, their nibbling on the poisonous fruit of bit­terness makes them bitter people themselves.

And just as the primary consumers of the sycamine fruit were poor people, those who sit around and constantly meditate on every wrong that has ever been done to them are usually bound up with all kinds of poverty. Their bitter attitude not only makes them spiritually poor, but they are also frequently defeated, depressed, sick, and financially poor as well.

It is very interesting to note that the sycamine tree was not naturally pollinated. The pollina­tion process was only initiated when a wasp stuck its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. Thus, the tree and its fruit had to be “stung” in order to be reproduced.

Think of how many times you have heard a bitter person say: “I’ve been stung by that person once, but I’m not going to be stung again! What he did hurt me so badly that I’ll never let him get close enough to sting me again!” It is likely that people who make such a statement have been “stung” by a situation that the devil especially devised to pollinate their hearts and souls with bitterness and unforgiveness. When a person talks like this, you can know for sure that the wasp of bitterness got to them!

Jesus said that in order to rid this nuisance from one’s life, a person must have faith the size of “a grain of mustard seed.” Jesus was telling His disciples that a great amount of faith is not needed to deal with bitterness and unforgiveness. Any person who has even a tiny measure of faith can speak to bitterness and unforgiveness and command them to leave - if  that is really the desire of his heart.

I hope you enjoyed this teaching. If this is something that you are dealing with in your life right now ask God to show you who you have bitterness and resentment to and ask God to forgive you for your actions and have him help you forgive those who have wronged you. You will feel like a weight has been lifted off of you. I promise! You have nothing to loose.