From Resentment to Forgiveness

Resentment is when you allow your hurts to turn into hates.

When those hates simmer in your heart, they create bitterness, and you are the one who suffers. Forget those hurts!

When you have a relationship in need of repair, the first key to improvement is to examine your own heart — remember who you are and who God called you to be. Did the Father call you to be angry? To be bitter? Or did he call you to be loving and forgiving?

An itinerant preacher from Nazareth can do something for the hurt that is in your heart. Maybe you are trying to rebuild an estranged relationship. Perhaps you have been trying to find God for longer than you can remember. There was something about this Nazarene preacher that made people cluster around him like he was God’s gift to humanity. He is your gift as well.

Father, we know that resentment and bitterness do not belong in Christian hearts. But sometimes, like little children, we hold on to our hurts. Help us to turn them over to you, Father. Remind us that your touch can make us stronger at our broken places.