Behold, it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back. Isaiah 38:17
It is no secret that many people sustain their lives and even advance and succeed in life because bitterness and resentment they harbor from past injustices and grievances. Some examples: Scar from the Lion King; Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty; Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars; Captain Kirk from Star Trek; etc… You can even say the Apostle Paul, in some regards was also a product of his own bitterness which made him the “super apostle.” Even in your own life, you have done things out of bitterness that sustained your life. I’m sure of it because I’ve gotten to many places I’m at because of the bitterness rising out of my heart. I’m not going to go in detail about what those grievances or injustices were, or why I or you felt jilted by those circumstances and situations; however, I will address the issue of how bitterness may have sustained you to this point in your life so that you can have new life. The Bible says that Hezekiah was a good king, the few that were actually good after David and Solomon. In this passage, King Hezekiah is quoted as saying that he had so many reasons for bitterness and that, in fact, sustained his life for long enough to do the things that he had to do and bring him to a point where God. It’s pretty interesting to know that a lot of his “good” work was driven by some sort of inner bitterness. However, the result is the same: bitterness brings you to a point where you must choose to let go of the bitterness and allow something else drive your life. In the instance here, Hezekiah trades his bitterness for salvation from God. The Bible says that God gave Hezekiah a few more years to live when he let go of the bitterness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fairly evident that bitterness can drive a man most of his life and manage to produce real good. But ultimately, anything driven by bitterness leads to brokenness and destruction– mostly because it is a horrible sin that eats away at a person from the inside. God is in love with you and wants to give you a better drive. He wants to wipe away your sins and give you new life. So now, I want to ask you, if bitterness drove you to this point in your life and if bitterness is still driving you– are ready to give up that drive for something better?
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