Am I bitter? A Bitterness Test

May 11, 2016 by W

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?

A Bitterness Test

When you hear a certain person’s name or a group of people, do you experience anger?
What’s the first thought that comes up in your mind when you think about them?
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?
Are the comments you make about them derogatory?
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?
Do you often feel cheated by others and short-changed by life in general?
Do you intentionally try to avoid a person? Do you dread seeing or having to spend time with someone? Why?
Do your thoughts about them tend to be more negative or positive? If negative, what have they done that makes you feel that way?
Have you refused to forgive someone?
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?
Do you secretly take joy in their distress or bad times?
When someone speaks badly of them do you listen intently or try to defend them?
Do you struggle to sleep because of your thoughts or memories of them?
Do you lash out at that person even over smaller things? Are you vindictive?
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?
Do you analyze everything they say, looking for fault?
Do you struggle to be happy because of your continual thoughts about them?
Do you believe every Gossip about them without checking the validity of it?
How often do you complain about them to others?
Have they done more harm to you than we as sinners did to Jesus on the Cross? “Father Forgive Them”

March 2016 Prayer Letter –

April 4, 2016 by W

Click here for a full resolution version of this prayer letter

Help the Hurting

March 28, 2016 by W

“I’m a housewife in my 50s. I lost my parents in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

When I was looking for my parents after they went missing in the disaster, I saw small children who were dead.

I’m still anguished by the loss of my parents. I also imagine how these children would feel sad about dying that way. Since that time, my spiritual balance has been disturbed. In a word, I’m a wreck.“

I read that in an article today. Take a moment and think about the pain that woman must feel everyday. Multiply that by the thousands that were equally devastated by that same disaster. Though it’s easy for many of us to forget, they never can. I bring this as a reminder that there are so many hurting people all around us, and not just in Japan. All over the world people are struggling with all kinds of pain.

Of course, I understand that we as Christians often face immense pain as well, but in our pain there is always hope and help from God. I do not say this to diminish the pain felt by so many Christians, for our pain is just as gruesome and terrible. I only wish to convey that their pain does not come with all the help that comes from having a relationship with Christ. They don’t know His love. They don’t know or posses the Comforter. They don’t know the power of prayer. They don’t know to read God’s word and to be helped by it. All of this can be theirs upon accepting Christ as their Savior, but the majority of people across the world have never heard the Gospel.

This is the thought that I really hope sinks into our hearts: What are we doing to help them? I’m not talking about the things we do to ease our consciences about a hurting, lost world. I’m asking what part of your life have you given to help the hurting across the world? We need more people to step up from praying for more laborers for the world to going and being that laborer. Go and take the Good News of the risen Savior to the World.