Bitter or Better

 Life can be very hard sometimes. We all suffer from tragedies that happen to us in various ways. It may be that we get the report back from the doctor telling us we have cancer. We might lose our job or have severe financial difficulties, even to the point of being homeless. Sometimes we suffer grief because of the loss of a loved one. Sometimes these loses come in waves, not just one at a time. At those times we have to decide how we are going to react.

Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, suffered greatly because of the death of her husband and then several years later both of her sons died. She was living in Moab because of a severe famine in Israel, so she decided to return to her home in Bethlehem. (Ruth 1:21) She told the ladies who greeted her upon her return that she went out full, but the Lord had sent her back home empty. Her name meant "pleasant," but God had caused her to suffer so much that her reaction was to be bitter. There is a great lesson here.

When bad things happen to us, they are not always caused by the Lord. However, if we are believers, God has to allow whatever happens. Nothing can happen to us, as Christians, that God doesn't allow When He allows bad things to happen to us, or when He sends suffering into our lives, it is not to hurt us, but to help us. He wants us to trust Him more because of the trials and the suffering. If we do, we get stronger. If we don't, we can drift away from God. The choice is up to us.

We must be assured that God loves us, and He doesn't do anything to us or allow anything to happen to us that is not done out of love. We must decide that we are going to ask God what He wants us to learn from our suffering, so we can get better. If we don't respond well to Him, we will get bitter and our bitterness will ruin our lives and our relationship with Him. I pray all of us will choose to get better instead of being bitter.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ruth 2-4