GET BETTER NOT BITTER
Text: 1 Samuel 1:1-28
Summary of the Scripture: When you think of Hanna, think of persistence and faith. At a time in history when infertility earned a woman both scorn and ridicule, Hannah faced an added heartache: She became the object of cruel mocking by her husband's other wife. Had you been Hannah, how would you have responded?
Hannah refused to lash out or at her rivals, but instead took her sorrow and loss to God. She prayed earnestly to her Lord, begging Him for a Son. She refused to believe that her difficult situation had remained permanent.
Hannah prayed sincerely, specifically and sacrificially. She did not back away from her request, even when rebuked by an uncomprehending priest and God rewarded her faith with a son, Samuel. When the time came for her to keep her word and gave Samuel to the service of the Lord, she did so with a thankful heart.
Prayer changed the course of Hannah's life and impacted an entire nation. God used her son in the key role as prophet during the lifetime of King David, and his influence outlived him as he gave other children, providing once again His delight in the faith and persistence of His people.
In life, we face different kinds of challenges, disappointment from the loved once, marriage breakdown, business failure, lost of loved once, relationship breakdown, lost of jobs, sickness, pains, setbacks, hatred, discrimation,conspiracy, attacks, persecution and many more. All these could add up and make one to become disappointed, fustrated, depressed and led to bitterness and resentment which is not healthy to our soul as children of God.
John 16:33 Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace, In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"
Many of us has been offended and wounded in certain ways, abused, used, afflicted, neglected, forsaken by people we love and trusted and our heart is broken to the extent of us not willing to see them, talk to them or have nothing to do with them any longer. But Jesus did not teach us to handle disappointment like that, He said on the cross to the Father," Forgive them for they do not know what they were doing" He taught and encouraged us to forgive, let go, show compassion and love those who hate us and even feed them if they are hungry, give to them if they are in need; by doing these, proved us to be true child of father in Heaven.. ( Matthew 5:43 ) Jesus said, Love your enemies. "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.
In the case of Hanna, instead of her getting bitter with her rival, but got better on her knees pleading and praying to God for mercy and favour and the Lord heard her prayer and open her womb. The bible says, "If we regards iniquity in our hearts, the Lord we not hear us" Hannah's heart was clean, free from resentment, free from hanger, free from hatred But her heart was opened to receive from God.
Many of us believers harbour offends of our brothers and sisters against us for many years and refused to forgive and let go, these has become a stronghold in our life, a stumbling block to our prayer, our progress and our uprising. The household witchcraft power, witches and wizards are not necessarily the cause of our problems but unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment are the silent killer of our destiny or war of separation between us and God. (Matthew 6:12) And forgive us our debts, as we we forgive our debtors."
Let us look into the account Job;
a. Who Was Job? (Job 1:1, 2)
1. A Believing Man (Job 1:1)
A. Perfect towards God – blameless – right with God
b. Upright means he had nothing to hide and be embarrassed of – he was clean – not that he had ever sinned but that he always had his sin covered by the blood! Pardoned, forgiven!
c. Feared God – faith in God means nothing if there is no fear of God
d. Hated sin – faith in God means nothing if there is not a HATRED of sin – eschewed evil means Job avoided, spit sin out of his life. God cannot bless a person who does not HATE sin in his or her life!
2. A Blessed Man (Job 1:2, 3; James 1:17)
a. God had blessed Job’s home
1) had a wonderful, faithful wife – one wife by the way
2) Had TEN healthy, happy children
b. God had blessed his business – farming – loads of animals, loads of land – loads of money
c. God had blessed his name – a great name – well known
3. A Burdened Man (Job 1:4, 5)
a. His own spirituality (closeness and walk with God) was no guarantee of his family’s spirituality
b. His children were a worry – blessings can often make the next generation lazy, especially in dependency upon God
c. So he prays for his children, intercedes for them, and sacrifices for them in case they were doing something stupid
1) Under the Old Testament, people HAD to offer sacrifices to cover for sins
2) Fathers were responsible for their children’s relationship with God and had to sometimes intercede for them when they sinned or else they would be punished by God
3) Job was NOT going to abandon his kids to the world, and to their own devices!
B. What Happened To Him?
1. The same thing that happens to absolutely everybody in this life – disasters (Job 3:25)
2. You can be dotting your it’s, and perfectly crossing your it’s and yet STILL get horrendously side-swiped by disaster!
3. Four of the worst disasters that can happen to any of us, all happened at once
a. Loss of all income and security
1) Sabeans stole his 1,000 oxen and 500 asses
2) Lightning storm kills of his entire herd of 7,000 sheep
3) Chaldeans stole his 3,000 camels
4) All but 4 of his servants are lost along with all the farm animals
b. Loss of his children - a tornado kills all 10 of his children
c. Loss of his health – a crippling, devastating disease
d. Loss of support – his own wife wants to just die
C. How Did Job Respond (Job 1:20-22; 2:9-11)?
Job 1; 20-22 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, " Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord
Job 2:9-11 " Then His wife said to Him, " Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
1. The experiences of Job show us how to respond when absolutely everything that could go wrong, does go wrong!
2. THAT is why this BOOK is so important! The (BOOK OF JOB)
3. It would make a great movie – a great film, a great book wouldn’t it? ;)
Remember that with all these calamities that Job encountered, he never get bitter with God, with his wife, with his neighbours, his families, friends or put the blames on anyone; But he got better in his mind, spirit, praising and worshiping God. (JOB 14:142) And he said, if a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. (
Job 19:25) He said:
For I know that my redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth.
(Job 42:1217) Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job, more than his beginning: Because He trusted in God and never failed the test, the lord restored him even more that he ever lost.
Are you still angry because of what you lost, what you have been through of going through? Thinking it is over, wanting to end it all? I 'am here to announce to you that it is not over until God Himself say it is over. God has not finished with you, He has just started with you and His plans and purpose for you is still alive and He will bring it past at His own time
. (PSALM 30:4-6)"Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His Holy name. For His Anger is but for a moment, His favour is life; Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Now in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved"
Most of the time, we fight many battles that we do not need to fight and we end up not winning, We must allow God to fight our battle for us and let Him have His way. 2nd Chronicles 20:17-19 you will not need to fight in this battle, Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and
Zechariah 4:6 “Not by might nor by my power, but My Spirit says the Lord of Host"
Bitterness will hold you down, hold you up, handicap you, enslaved you form moving forward.
It will separate you from God and will not allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, work in you and work with you." Romans 8:6) " For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
It will make you to become lonely, torment you, make you to become an angry person and have more enemies rather than friends.. Proverbs 22:24-25" Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul."
It will cause a great delay to your journey, make you to become stagnant and separate you from for your helper and lifter of destiny.
It will cause pain into your body, mind and soul and will tear you apart spiritually.
RATHER THAN GETTING BITTER YOU CAN GET BETTER:
In your relationship with God and let Him fight the battle of your life for you.
Get better in your service to God and in your prayer life.
Get better in your obedience to God, Living for God, Living to love God and Loving your neighbours rather than been bitter with them.
Get better in growing in faith in God, trusting God more, resting on God more rather than getting bitter.
Get better in the fear of God, doing His will and living within His Principles
Jesus did not get bitter with Saul while he was persecuting Him, He did not get bitter with Peter when He denied Him But got better in showing them compassion, love and forgiveness.
Some people of are bitter, upset, annoyed, and frustrated because those that we trusted has ignored us, forsook us and rejected us. See what the Bible says about you: Isaiah 60:15 "Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, So that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.
Do not put your trust on man nor put your confidence in them for they will always let you down. The only one that we never let you down nor forsake you is Jesus Christ. So rather than you getting bitter with those who do you wrong, why don't you look onto to Him for strength, more grace to carry on loving them. Philippians 2:: 5-11 Let this mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbles Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Micah 7:5 do not trust in a friend, do not put your confidence in a companion; Guide the door of your mouth from far who lies in your bosom
JEREMIAH 17:5 thus says the Lord; “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.
Psalm 125:1-2 those who trust in the Lord Are like
2nd Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have past away; behold all things have become new."
Jesus said, Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I’m gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
So, my beloved, if you are in Christ and Christ in you, that means you have His nature and must live like Him, see like Him, think like Him, care like Him, love like Him, be compassionate like Him, forgives like Him, lead like Him and walk like Him. This is what makes you a true born again Christian: TO BE CHRIST LIKE.
Brethren, always remind yourselves that it is better to get BETTER than to get BITTER.
PUT OFF THE GARMENT OF BITTERNESS AND PUT ON THE GARMENTS OF LOVE, Remember, LOVE DOES NOT FIGHT, DOES NOT KILL, DOES NOT HATE, DOES NOT HARBOUR GRUDGES, DOES NOT ENVY, DOES NOT JEALOUS, DOES NOT KEEP RESENTMENT, DOES NOT THINK OF EVIL, BUT LOVE SUFFERS LONG, AND IS KIND, REJOICES IN TRUTH, BEARS ALL THINGS, BELIEVES ALL THINGS, HOPES ALL THINGS, ENDURES ALL THINGS AND FORGIVES/
For God is Love and whoever is born of God must also love. I don’t know how many people you are bitter with, or angry with and refused to forgive or released from your heart, And if truly you are a Christian and A Child of God, TODAY You must repent and asked for forgiveness and power to forgive and forget so that you too you can move forward and flow in the goodness of God.
The foundation of Christianity is Love and let the love of Christ rain in your heart, your home, in your Church, in our community and in our Nations.
God bless you.
