When bitterness becomes a controlling addiction.
A HURT is an EMOTION and RESENTMENT is a REACTION to that hurt. Emotions aren’t right or wrong. They just are.
Resentment is how we choose to respond to an emotion. We can make different choices from that place. We often think we are ‘supposed to’ choose to not be hurt. No! We are supposed to choose how we respond to being hurt. Even deeper still, WHO do we want to be inside that hurt.
Resentment never hurts the other person, it hurts you. It’s like taking hot coals in your hand, you get burned. Job says, (Job 18:4) You are only hurting yourself with your anger! (GN)
Don’t allow people who have hurt you in the past to continue to hurt you today, by holding a grudge against them. When you’ve been unjustly treated or hurt by others, be careful not to multiply the pain through your emotional response.
If we allow emotions like anger and resentment to germinate and grow, they can easily feed the early stages of bitterness.
Bitterness is not easily detected when it begins to grow. It doesn’t typically start as a destructive emotion. Bitterness initially disguises as a form of relief by offering a kind of emotional retaliation.
It can feel good to be bitter because bitterness is an emotional drug that induces temporary feelings of relief through emotional vindictiveness. But when bitterness becomes a controlling addiction, it begins to destroy the one who uses it.
