“If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” (Psalm 130:3,4)
Bitterness blinds. It only has eyes for the offenses of another. It cannot help thinking about what others did and didn’t do. They didn’t call when they should have. They were too busy with their own things to think about us. They weren’t as good a friend to us as we were to them.
All those things might be entirely true. But realize this: God has a stack of complaints that He could lodge toward any one of us. If He wanted to He could hold every failure of ours against us. But instead, He is willing to let it all go – that is what forgiveness is about. Releasing someone from the debt of love and honor they owed you, but didn’t pay.
The embittered soul is rarely able to look at itself in the mirror. Instead of seeing how far short it has fallen in love toward God and man, it obsesses on the failings of others. And so, because it only knows judgment, it places itself in line for judgment.
Bitterness and mercy are incompatible. You must choose one or the other. Get before a mirror.