* When you experience conflict with another person, God is showing you how to intercede for them.
* Jacob and Esau experienced intense conflict with each other.
* Esau forgave Jacob in his heart.
* But his kids never let it go.
* Generations later, God had to punish the Edomites for nursing a grudge against the Israelites.
* vs 5-6 - “‘Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, 6 therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you...”
* Warren Wiersbe - “Some people nurse a grudge the way a mother nurses a child: they love it, cherish it, and cannot live without it. But they forget that the child is growing and may one day turn on them and destroy them. A grudge against an enemy is a very expensive thing, no matter how much enjoyment you may get nursing it.”
* To cherish something is to “to hold dear, to feel or show affection, to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely.”
* When someone does us wrong, we have two ways of dealing with it:
* The good path: Anger - Resolve - Forgiveness - Restoration (Biblical Love).
* The bad path: Anger - Grudge - Bitterness - Hatred.
* Notice they both start with anger.
* Anger is an emotion with a purpose, and the purpose is to see justice done.
* You can either move toward forgiveness (and give the situation to God) or unforgiveness where you hold them hostage in your heart.
* Unforgiveness is our desire for control, and it’s straight from the devil.
* Ultimately, you’re bitter and hateful and you become an absolute nuisance of a human being.
* You know you have a GRUDGE when the person's name is mentioned and it illicits an emotion.
* You think something bad about them and then in time you begin to verbalize it.
* You know you have BITTERNESS when you have no desire to reconcile at all.
* You hold them hostage in your heart so you always know where they are and can control what they do to you and the way you feel toward them.
* A bitter heart attracts other bitterness - you will end up being bitter toward lots of things.
* You know you have HATRED in your heart when you want them out of your life, no matter what.
* This is when consequences don't matter anymore, and leads people to murder (in their hearts first and then in actions).
* In the Psalms we see David feeling anger but resolving to not let it get the best of him.
* We should do the same.