I didn’t mean to grow up bitter. But my skin color made me a target. In school, one teacher even called me “Nobody.” The result? Bitterness. I knew Jesus, but I also knew hurt. Its sting fertilized my bitterness which, like a weed “springs up and causes trouble.” (Hebrews 12:15 ESV).

So, while I loved God and believed He loved me, my bitterness stood between us. I’d forgotten the Bible’s call to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (v. 14).

Instead, I was obsessed with racial hatred, ignoring Paul’s call to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Ephesians 4:31). But how? God reveals three ways:

TAKE YOUR BITTERNESS TO HIM. Ask Him to banish it. In reply, I heard God say, “Forgive.” But how?

ASK GOD TO TEACH YOU. In fact, forgiveness isn’t an act, it’s a process. As scholar Lewis Smedes explained, forgiveness doesn’t excuse offenders; it means “we are ready to be healed.” How?

RELY ON THE HOLY SPIRIT’S GREAT POWER. Then His work in us becomes His witness. Indeed, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

As God does His work in us, a bitter root can bloom—in Christ—into a beautiful flower. True, our “soil” will always need weeding. But God’s love can turn our bitter sin into grace.

Patricia Raybon, Our Daily Bread author

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