James 3:3-4 reminds us that, “We put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.” When a husband speaks bitter words of complaint against their wire, it is like watching him slap her in the face. It only takes a few bitter words spoken in an average month to kill a marriage, a family, a workplace, or a church. James them makes a stunning acknowledgement about the tongue in James 3:9-10, “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in teh similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” We need to take time to consider how we tend to speak about hurts and disappointments. As we retell a story, is our narrative laced with bitter words? Does listening to you talk sound like drinking a fresh glass of water, or something bitter? It only takes occasional bitterness to poison a a situation … READ MORE

What words come out of your mouth? In James 3, we are challenged to consider our speech, because it is a reflection of our heart. Careful examination of the passage shows that bitterness comes up in this passage. This leads us to a question, are we incensed at the thought that we could be poisoning our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors with our words? The good news is that the gospel is powerful enough to impact even the way we speak. The challenge of bitter speech is that it is a universal problem. All of us struggle with this issue. James 3:2 reminds us that “we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” Yet we are reminded in James 3:8 “no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.” We need to evaluate how much time we put on discerning whether our words are pleasing to God and free of sinful bitterness. The power to overcome comes through the transformation that comes to anyone who puts their faith in the Word of God, and the indwelling Spirit … READ MORE

We need to understand that we want what we want because we believe what we believe. In the Esau narrative, found in Genesis 25:29-34, we see that it was because of his wrong core beliefs, that he wanted the immediate gratification of the stew from Jacob. We would do well to carefully examine what we typically want during times that lead to bitterness. The challenge is that we are often so focused on the sins of others, we fail to examine the sin that resides in our own heart. We can rarely change the choices of those around us, but in the power of Christ we can definitely change the nature of what we want in any given situation. We often become bitter because our own heart wants things that are idolatrous replacements for right desires that would point us to satisfaction and joy in our Savior.… READ MORE