Bitter Root Judgements & Bitter Root Expectations

Recently, I have learned from a very wonderful and wise woman, Val Norton, about bitter root judgements and bitter root expectations. You can forgive someone but still have a bitter root of judgement or expectation against them. Val walked us through this past weekend, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any bitter roots of judgement of expectation that we had towards a person or people. I found out that I had people who I had been bitterly judging that I needed to let go of. It is one thing to forgive, I learned, but if you are continuing to judge, there is still a root of bitterness there. For example in a bitter root judgement, someone could think, "This person is manipulative and controlling and domineering." That may be true of them, but as we judge that person and always see them in that light, we will forever be bitter about it. A generalization of a bitter root judgement would be, "He is domineering, controlling & manipulative; therefore, every man is that same way." A bitter root expectation is, "She always does this. Why wouldn't she do this? This is what always happens." You expect someone to act a certain way; therefore, it's a self-fufilling prophecy of what you always expect. All these things may be true, but when we are judging with a heart of bitterness, we are not completely free from the offense, the unforgiveness. We are still holding them captive when it's really us who are the captive. Like Isaiah 61 talks about, "releasing from prison those who are bound." Captive to bitter root judgements and captive to sin in general. I want to encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you if there are any bitter root judgements or expectations towards a person or people in your life. It will hinder every area of your life. Get rid of the sin that so easily ensnares and run to Jesus!