Anchor Church Anchor Church

The bitterness, spiritual devastation, mental anguish… unforgiveness. God wants to free us from it all. And here’s the good news: Every single believer in Christ can be free from bitterness. We don’t have to be bitter and resentful and unforgiving and mentally anguished and spiritually devastated anymore. Can you imagine that? Imagine a life free from resentment, a life where you don’t have to be disgruntled… What if you could actually let go of that grudge and live in the freedom God always intended for you? This is God’s will for you and me… Freedom from Bitterness.

Guilt and shame change the way we see ourselves. Guilt and shame can lead to an identity crisis. Remember, guilt says “I did a really bad thing” and enough guilt can lead to shame, which says “I am a bad person.” When we’re living with shame and constantly believing “I am a bad person” we eventually stop believing that we are the image of God. We stop believing that we are who He says we are.

Fear is a crazy thing. It can cause us to think and behave in ways we normally wouldn’t. But
God never intended for us to live in fear, and when He’s with us, when we’re with Him, there’s
nothing to fear.

How many of us are truly aware of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross that faithful day over 2000 years ago. So many were and are oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made on their behalf. So many of us do the same thing to God. We wave as we pass Him by, never give a second thought to the sacrifice He made on our behalf. God allowed the jaws of death to close in on His Son. And millions pass by oblivious and indifferent. God sending Jesus to die on our behalf was not a panic move; it wasn’t a spontaneous decision. It was planned. Jesus’ death was not the result of jealous Jews or hard-hearted Romans. It was the result of a loving God, who in His wisdom, said there was no other way. Jesus chose the nails, to demonstrate just how far he was willing to go to win your heart. He chose the cross to prove just how much He loves each and every one of us.

¹⁸But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”¹⁹“All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”²⁰“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” ²¹But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said. - John 2:18-22

Our question is not, “how much of what is mine do I give to others?” The question is, “how
much of what is God's do I reserve for myself?” Our answer reveals our commitment to
Christ.