A Prayer about Preventing Bitterness
A Prayer about Preventing Bitterness
See to it than on one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled… Hebrews 12:15
Merciful Lord,
May we hear your dire warning
to guard our hearts
from the toxic root of bitterness.
Bitterness characterizes the unrighteous,
whose “mouth is full of curses and bitterness,
whose feet are swift to shed blood” (Romans 3:14-15).
Bitterness characterizes the selfish,
those who are “in the gall of bitterness
and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23).
Bitterness grows when we refuse to forgive.
For those forgiven by you,
bitterness makes no sense.
Knowing the cost of our sins
you paid on the cross,
we pray daily, “forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
Knowing how fully you have forgiven us,
we forgo resentment and bitterness,
striving for “peace with everyone”
insofar as it depends on us (Hebrews 12:15; Romans 12:18).
In your grace-giving name. Amen.
Read Hebrews 12:14-15; Romans 3:10-18; Romans 12:9-21.
![When’s the last time you highlighted your weakness?
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:10
All-Powerful God,
We confess,
we in Western culture
crave power, control, and independence.
The last thing we want
is to be seen as weak.
And yet, weakness is the way of Christ,
so it must be our way as well.
The apostle Paul understood that,
so in the face of accusations
that he wasn’t an apostle,
he countered the boasting of the “super-apostles”
with some boasting of his own:
“If I must boast,
I will boast of the things
that show my weakness” (2 Cor. 11:30).
And then he mentions how he was lowered in a basket through the window of a wall in Damascus, of all places,
a place he went to persecute Jews only to be knocked down on the road,
struck blind, by his Lord and Savior himself.
Paul shares many other weaknesses in 2 Corinthians,
a book that’s all about weakness as the way
of followers of Christ.
He asked that you would relieve him from a “thorn in the flesh,”
but you did not.
Instead, you said,
“My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Lord, we know we really are weak —
[for each of these areas, name any weaknesses you have]
weak in our bodies,
weak in our work,
weak in our wills,
Weak in our faith,
Weak in our hope,
Weak in our love.
We believe
that you your power is made perfect
in and through our weakness.
Help our unbelief.
In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:30-12:10.
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