And, of course, the rejection caused by the bitterness leads to the people concerned feeling even more bitter, and so the cycle continues. Bitter people are not popular in Cell Groups. They rarely go because they feel rejected. And when they do go, they almost have to make sure that people will reject them. Churches have been paralysed for years by unresolved bitterness, and so have individual Christians who refuse to deal with the bitterness they feel towards God.
Bitterness is loss, frozen in resentment.
And bitterness is also a chain, tying us to the thing of person we want to be free from. Until we deal with the bitterness we cannot escape from the loss. People want vengeance, but end up with a hypercritical spirit, ulcers, rejection, and chains. We hope that our bitterness will in some way influence others, but all that happens is that it destroys us. Get rid of it.