Bitter or Better

Ever been hurt by the words of a friend?  Have you had a work situation that wasn’t fair?  Have you been cheated, lied to, or betrayed?  I am sure we all have experiences in life that have left us really hurt.  Whether it was intentional or not, people and situation leave us upset and damaged.  We are ready to take revenge or “show them”.  We want to make them “pay” for the hurt and injustice they caused.  We can’t let them get away with it, or can we?

When we become upset, hurt and unforgiving, we allow bitterness to to take over.  It usually starts small, but can quickly grow if we allow it.  We can’t and don’t want to forgive them for hurting us or treating us unfair.  The sad part is the people who we are upset with aren’t even aware of how we feel, or if they are they don’t care that we are hurt.  They continue on with their lives not concerned with us at all.  On to the next thing while we sit here wrenched and wounded. We then tend to sulk about it or try to get even.  After all they don’t deserve to get away with treating us this way.   Unfortunately our actions just make the situation even worse.  We need to forgive…  But, how can we forgive them when they are not even sorry or ask for forgiveness?  How can we just let it go?

God’s word tells us over and over again to forgive.  In fact he tells us to forgive as he forgives us.  God knows that when we have unforgiveness in our lives we are the ones who suffer.  We are the ones who are feeding the root of bitterness allowing it to spring up in our lives.  We have to chose to be BETTER not BITTER by forgiving.  It is very hard to forgive, especially someone who doesn’t seek forgiveness.  But forgiveness is not about letting them off the hook, it is about us letting go of the situation and moving on.  Sometimes it is just too hard to do in our own strength. God will help us forgive if we ask him.

Forgiveness will give us a release from bitterness and allow God’s peace back in our hearts.   We can’t control the other person or the situation but we can control how we respond to it.  It is not easy, as our first response it to be bitter and unforgiving.  But we can chose to take the high road, chose to forgive and leave the hurt behind.  So with God’s help chose to be BETTER not bitter!

 

Missing Person Alert

In a society so full of knowledge how can we miss the most important person ever?  (though he is so much more than a mere person).  Where has God gone?  Did he leave us to ourselves or did we lose him in the crazy, mixed up, busy, technology full society we have become.

We have so much information coming at us on a daily basis we have lost the ability to figure out what is treasure and what is trash. As we spend hours daily on social media, you tube videos and googling we fill our minds with stuff but is it God stuff?  Do we seek him and his will?  Are we really trying to get wiser with all this information?  Or are we on information overload that we can’t ciphers through and process effectively?  Are we intentional with the information we allow in our heads?  To find God we have to look for him. He wants to be found. We have lost him, he has not wandered off or been taken from us. We have abandoned him. We are looking but not finding because we aren’t serious about finding him.   Many times, we even go through the motions. We take time to attend church, listen to a couple Christian songs now and then and even throw up a few “Hail Mary” prayers. But we aren’t intentional about finding God. We have become content with being lost in a world of fast paced, instant gratification, self-centered focus.

Maybe we are afraid if we find God he will ask us to do something we are not comfortable with. We hear stories of people being called to be missionaries in Africa. We could never do that. So maybe if we lose God we won’t have to tell him “No”. After all it we tell God “No” he may strike us down or punish us. But if we don’t have a relationship with him and keep him just as a “friend” (or acquaintance) then we don’t have to commit anything to him. We can continue on with our lives only seeking him when we have a crisis and need help from a friend.

The saddest part is that the God of the universe wants us. He calls us, desires us into a relationship with him. He loves us so much that he gave his most sacred possession to redeem us and allow us to be part of his family. But we are so confused by knowledge and information that we don’t know how to have a relationship. Broken families, broken churches, broken friendships have left us guarded and untrusting. We have put up walls to protect ourselves from being hurt. We would rather hide behind a mask or profile picture than let anyone know who we really are. We don’t  give people  opportunity to get to know the real us because they may not “like” us. We want to either show the “perfectness” of our lives or we show drama to get attention. We don’t want wisdom in our situation. God the Father can give us wisdom and healing through his word and Holy Spirit but we would rather have the comments and sympathy of society instead.

God has a perfect plan for each of us. He desires for us to live in joy and peace. We can’t know his plan unless we have a relationship with him. We need to “find” God, accept him, and learn who he is. He has all knowledge and wisdom. He wants to give us good things.  Society wants us to think God deprives us of good times. That if we are Christians we have restrictions and can’t be fun or have a social life. It is so interesting as society doesn’t even understand what fun (joy) is. The lack of peace and a life of regret and drama is present instead of joy. We have become content with hurting and longing for something to fill the vast void in our life.

God created us to have a relationship with him. The void we have can only be filled with God’s presence. But as long as he’s a missing person in our lives we will not be who we were created to be.  Find God!