Proverbs 14:10 “The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy”

Bitterness causes us to grieve inwardly. It becomes hard to share the joy and happiness we see in the lives of others. The more we sit in the bitterness of our past hurt, the more blind we become. The bitter roots hold us and often blind us to our need to let go and heal.

James 1:20 “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God”

Wrath in this scripture means anger. The outward emotion expressed when you have bitter roots is anger. Righteous means we have godly morals and values which produce a righteous attitude and behavior that glorifies God. 

Anger from bitterness can cause issues spiritually and emotionally. It can be hard to deal with the unresolved issues of our past. Instead, we hold on to the issues and leave no room to grow spiritually and move past the bitter roots.

When we have bitter roots we are judgemental in an unbalanced way.  We leave no room to understand others. We think we are further along than we are. We often try so hard to run from it. We lack the ability to admit we have bitterness and face it. When we face the bitter roots we become liberated.

It is important to allow people in our lives to help us to grow and mature. We should strive each day to overcome our past. We need to overcome bitterness and allow God to work in our lives. The goal is to make progress along the way. The essence of overcoming bitter roots is to stop being stuck on the former things that have happened in our lives.