I’ve been preparing a message on how bitterness affects prayer, and I’ve compiled a list of questions as means to discover bitterness in your heart. I hope it’s a help to you!

Am I bitter?

bitterness

A Bitterness Test

  1. When you hear a certain person’s name or a group of people, do you experience anger?
  2. What’s the first thought that comes up in your mind when you think about them?
  3. When you think of a group or person do you replay a bad memory of them in your head?  How often do you replay that memory in your mind? Is it hard to not think of them and those memories together?
  4. Are the comments you make about them derogatory?
  5. When you make a mistake or something doesn’t go your way do you blame a group or a person? Do you blame someone for you faults, failures or weaknesses?
  6. Do you often feel cheated by others and short-changed by life in general?
  7. Do you intentionally try to avoid a person? Do you dread seeing or having to spend time with someone? Why?
  8. Do your thoughts about them tend to be more negative or positive? If negative, what have they done that makes you feel that way?
  9. Have you refused to forgive someone?
  10. Is it difficult for you to celebrate their victories? Using phrases like, “it’s only because” or “if they wouldn’t have” to justify why it’s going great for them. Is your heart more for someone’s failure than for their success?
  11. Do you secretly take joy in their distress or bad times?
  12. When someone speaks badly of them do you listen intently or try to defend them?
  13. Do you struggle to sleep because of your thoughts or memories of them?
  14. Do you lash out at that person even over smaller things? Are you vindictive?
  15. Are you frequently on the lookout for perceived slights? Do you often look for ways to get back at those you view as having neglected, abused, disrespected, or ignored you?
  16. Do you analyze everything they say, looking for fault?
  17. Do you struggle to be happy because of your continual thoughts about them?
  18. Do you believe every Gossip about them without checking the validity of it?
  19. How often do you complain about them to others?
  20. Have they done more harm to you than we as sinners did to Jesus on the Cross? “Father Forgive Them”