Articles
Coping with Life 35 – Bitterness
Coping with Life 35 – Bitterness
Mike Willis
The scriptures use some form of the word “bitter” in 75 verses. It is a negative reaction that someone has to his painful circumstances. Knowing the sufferings of Job, we are not surprised that the words appear in 8 or 9 verses (depending upon which translation you use). Esau let out a “great and bitter cry” when he learned that his younger brother, Jacob, had deceived his father in order to receive the firstborn blessing (Gen. 27:34). The death of Ruth’s husband and sons caused her and her daughters-in-law to weep bitterly. Sometimes life is harsh and our circumstances are difficult to endure. In such times, Satan moves in, just as he did on Job, to create a bitterness of spirit that is angry at God (Job 7:11).
Sometimes our bitter experiences come as the consequences of poor choices we have made in our lives (for example, Israel’s painful exile was a result of their rebellions against God, Ezra 10:1). On the other hand, Job’s suffering was not caused by anything he had done (Job 1:1). In either case, we need to be aware of how Satan will use the sufferings one is experiencing to tempt you to hate God and turn away from Him.
There are things that happen to people that none of us can defend as just and fair. Why is one child born to a godly family where he will be loved and abundantly cared for, whereas another is born to a slave girl, ripped from his family in his teens and shipped to a new world where he spent his entire life in slavery? There is no answer to this question that comforts the enslaved child.
We must not allow what we do not and cannot know to make us bitter toward God. To avoid this temptation, we must focus on what we know. For example, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Even though one cannot know why the circumstances of his birth are what they are, he can still know that God loves him so much that He sent His Son to endure the agonies of Calvary to save him from his sins. Do not let Satan blind you to what you know.
I can know that sometimes God uses very painful circumstances to accomplish good things. The most evil thing ever done in this world was when wicked men plotted, planned, and accomplished the crucifixion of Jesus, the sinless Son of God. But, when we think about the best thing that ever happened in this world, we would be compelled to say that Jesus’s death on the cross which makes available to every man the opportunity to have his sins forgiven, to be saved eternally in heaven, is the best thing that ever happened. Do not let Satan blind you to the fact that God can accomplish good things from one’s sufferings.
I can know what God wants from me, because the first and second greatest commandments are these: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). Do not let Satan use your painful circumstances to cause you to forget, neglect, or disobey what you know to be true.
Paul wrote, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:31-32). Don’t allow Satan to cause you to forget this.
