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DEALING WITH BITTERNESS<br />
AND LEARNING TO FORGIVE<br />
For a long time after I was born again, I focused on my problems<br />
rather than the reason why I was facing them. Little did I know<br />
that that in itself was a problem, and I suffered as a result. I<br />
constantly asked God to heal and change other people because<br />
I thought they needed intercession and that I was perfect. When<br />
the Pharisees persecuted Jesus, they were so taken up by their<br />
own sense of self-righteousness that it blinded them to their<br />
own plight. Had they not been obsessed with themselves, they<br />
would have been able to see just how pitiful and in need of a<br />
Savior they were. That alone would have opened their eyes to<br />
the true nature of God that Jesus represented. The prophet<br />
Isaiah said it well: “All of us have become like one who is unclean,<br />
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up<br />
like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away,” (Isaiah 64:6<br />
NIV). It was only until much later when my eyes were opened<br />
that I realized how much I ‘stank’ before God.<br />
No matter how good our thoughts, speech and actions are, we<br />
must never think that we obtain righteousness from any of that.<br />
The moment self-righteousness creeps in, we become so<br />
detestable to God that we lose sight and vision of Him and all<br />
the eternal gifts He has freely given us by grace. That said, there<br />
is no greater gift than to have one’s sins blotted out completely.<br />
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