In the previous post we focused on anxiety; today bitterness. Can the Cross really help someone dig up the root of bitterness? Absolutely. Here’s a first step:
Challenge your expectations: Do you know you were created to glorify God? That statement, if we have even the slightest sense of entitlement, is a shock, a stinging slap in the face. Because every utterance of the world, the flesh and the devil conveys the complete opposite – that God’s job is to give us a good life as we define it. And don’t we know perfectly well what’s best for us?
Here’s where the mistakes of others might help us grow in humility. Think about Jesus’ first followers on Good Friday. Can you imagine what the events of that day did to their expectations? Imagine their shock and sense of utter defeat. Surely his tortuous death wasn’t part of the picture. Since they knew nothing of God’s purposes in the Cross, if it were in their power, their expectations would have led them to stop everything. In their sorrow and confusion, they could’ve been easy targets for bitterness. But in just three days they’d grasp how much higher are God’s thoughts than their thoughts.
What about us? Have sorrow and confusion made us easy targets too? A target, yes. But with humility and faith, not an easy one.
Janice blogs at http://janicecappucci.com