Bitterness is defined as a combination of anger and disappointment from the perception that you have been wronged or treated unfairly. It is both a mindset and a heart-set that burrows in gradually over time and causes resentment to become rooted in a person's heart. Bitterness is a heavy weight that occupies far too much space in our souls. It’s an internal toxin, and it's no surprise that it manifests in our external circumstances in ways that will undermine our well-being. It can quickly infiltrate other aspects of our lives, but this may not be the worse part. The most insidious characteristic of bitterness is that it keeps us blind to the connection between it and the situations and circumstances we experience in life, this is what causes us to be defeated by the tricks of the devil.
In God's Word, He teaches us about human behavior. We see both a demonstration of admirable and toxic characteristics within the lives of individuals whose records are in the Bible. The Book of Genesis gives us the record of Adam, the first human being that God created. Everything that our Heavenly Father created was sheer perfection, and He created paradise in the earth for Adam’s habitation. Sometimes, we make the mistake of equating everything that God created in the earth thousands of years ago to what we see now in our current environment. We miss a tremendous amount about God’s nature when we do this.
Again, God is perfect and everything He creates is perfect as well. There is no impurity in God. He is holy and righteous beyond our greatest imagination. Truly He is worthy to be praised! God was pleased with everything He created, and in Genesis, He makes the quality of His handywork known to us. Genesis 1:9-10(NLT) tells us, “9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good.” When this dry ground that God created appeared, it was ‘perfect’ ground, full of His glory. Everything was like that!
In Genesis 2:7(NLT), God tells us, “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” The dust of the ground from which God made Adam’s body was full of God’s glory. It was perfect dust and had life within it. There can be no doubt in our minds that Adam was created from glory, and he was surrounded by glory, because God’s glory was in everything that He created. Everything was full of His love, light, and life!
The blame game This was the backdrop for Adam’s and Eve’s lives. No good was spared from them. Genesis 2:8 informs us that God plopped them in the middle of paradise, and still they turned their backs on God and disobeyed Him by eating fruit from the tree that God had forbidden. Genesis 3:9-12(NLT) tells us, “9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
Notice that Adam did not accept responsibility for his actions but played the blame game and tried to pin it on God and Eve. In effect, Adam told God, “It was the woman, Eve. If You had not given her to me, I would not have been led to sin.” This abdication of responsibility is very common to those that choose to be bitter. They find it easy to point the finger, but never want to look in the mirror.
Bitterness changes a person
In the first chapter of the Book of Ruth, we see bitterness on full display. Naomi was Ruth’s mother-in-law. Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, chose to move his family to Moab. God had warned His people to steer clear of that place because the people of Moab worshiped idols. Elimelech felt justified in his disobedience because there was a famine in their hometown of Bethlehem-Judah, and rather than trust God to see them through it, Elimelech became afraid and took matters into his own hands. Many of us take this same approach, and it is never a good idea.
Elimelech and Naomi’s sons married Moabites women, and ultimately, their move to Moab yielded three funerals. Elimelech and his two sons died there. As the custom back then was for the sons to take care of their widowed mothers, Naomi was in dire straits. She was in a foreign territory with no husband and no sons. She had no relatives or benefactors in Moab, and she had no way to earn a living for herself, as this was forbidden for women of moral character during that time.
Naomi decided to move back to Bethlehem-Judah, because the famine had let up. Her plan was to send her daughters-in-law back to their fathers, but Ruth would not hear of it. She pledged her allegiance to Naomi and committed herself to serve God. She said in Ruth 1:16(NLT), “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, and they journeyed together back to Naomi’s hometown.
When she arrived home, Naomi’s friends and family were delighted to see her, but she was bitter about the tragedies she had suffered in Moab. Ruth 1:19-21(NLT) tells us her state of mind and heart: “19 When they came to Bethlehem, the entire town was excited by their arrival. “Is it really Naomi?” the women asked. 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she responded. “Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the LORD has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?” The circumstances Naomi had faced were severe. She lost everything in Moab, and erroneously blamed God for the tragedies she suffered.
She told the hometown folks, “I’m not who I used to be. I’ve changed, so don’t even call me by my old name. I’ve changed my name to Mara, which means “bitterness” because God has made my life something far below what it was.” Naomi allowed herself to be consumed by her own bitterness, and it changed her to such degree that she no longer recognized the woman she once was. She was filled with resentment, and this bitterness blinded her to the gratitude she should have expressed to God for the loyalty of her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Also take note that Naomi never mentioned the sin that she and her husband committed against God by moving to Moab. There was no mention of the sin of permitting their sons to marry women that God had specifically forbidden them to marry. Naomi’s and Elimelech’s sin had allowed satan’s curse to land upon their family, but she made no mention of this. Instead, she became bitter about the consequences she faced and refused to be accountable for the sins she had committed.
God doesn’t punish us, and He doesn’t want any of us to fall into condemnation and walk around with our heads hanging low. What He wants is for us to connect the dots between wrong action and the consequences we face, so we can repent, apply the correction of His Word, and restore our fellowship with Him. We cannot be made whole by believing a lie. We cannot walk in victory by being blinded to the truth. Accepting accountability for our own sin and mistakes is the mark of spiritual maturity. It is integral to a repenting heart, and God expects this from all His children.
God’s goal is that we move from glory to higher glory, and faith to higher faith. He doesn’t want us weighted down with emotions and thoughts that keep us in darkness. 1John 1:5 declares that God is light, and there isn’t any drop of darkness in Him at all. This is how He wants us to be. We can get there by being loyal to the example of Christ, and by being honest with ourselves and honest with Him. We must be ever faithful to pray that the Lord will open our eyes. Bitterness is a drag on our souls and if we’re not attentive to our relationship with God, it can drag our whole lives down with it. We can change this, and we should. We can turn bitterness to blessedness when we repent of our sins, take responsibility for our actions, and let gratitude for all God’s blessings fill our hearts with thanksgiving and faith.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
"From Bitterness to Blessedness”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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