As spring rolls around I am once again reminded I’m not a gardener. I pretend to be a gardener, I long to be a gardener but alas, I am not. If it could grow regardless of water, sun or rocks then it works for me. If it requires preparing the soil, monitoring acidity and any general maintenance then I will kill it for sure! My dreams of being a gardening diva fade as each year goes by and the crops show little to no return. But, all is not lost because I have learned a few basic things, one being that soil preparation is probably the single biggest factor in yielding good results.
In the parable of the soils, Jesus talks about gardening as well, but this time He isn’t teaching about literal soil, He is teaching about hearts. Just as it takes favorable conditions to grow real fruit, it also takes favorable conditions to grow spiritual fruit. If the soil of our hearts is hard with unforgiveness there is only one kind of root that will survive; the root of bitterness. Let me explain.
Disappointment is birthed when we have unmet expectations. However, when disappointment goes unaddressed it leads to bitterness. Bitterness is a root that grows in the soil of unforgiveness. Bitterness can manifest itself in many ways but I think ultimately our bitterness, although directed at other people, is often a disappointment or anger with God. Do you follow me?
Maybe you know someone who is overcome with bitterness or maybe you have been that person. Maybe you are still that person and you don’t even realize it. You know, we go through life with certain expectations and the longer we live the more we realize that life rarely delivers on those expectations. Sometimes we think our expectations are simple and small comparatively. We aren’t asking for the world, we just want good health, good marriages, good jobs and children who love Jesus…and a vacation once a year, a somewhat sizeable shopping budget, a lovely home and chocolate with no calories! That doesn’t seem like too much to ask for in the grand scheme of things. Besides, all things are possible with God right?
So, why do we set ourselves up with unrealistic expectations and then find ourselves reeling when the unrealistic doesn’t become reality? For this very reason: we have the expectation of the perfection of eternity in our hearts. This is the desire for all things to be perfect. Do you know why? Because this is what God created us to be! He created us to be perfect but we shattered that perfection in Genesis 3 and we have continued to shatter it every single day since then. However, the longing within our hearts remains. We know that there is something wrong with the world. We know that suffering, death, pain and betrayal are not the way things should be…so we live life in disappointment…and we simply do not know how to handle it.
I used to live in a constant state of expectation believing that if a few more things could fall into place then there would be a state of utopia in my life that nothing could touch. Sin makes that impossible. And so we, you and I, live disappointed and angry that life has not turned out the way we imagined. Then we let that disappointment fester and it makes us bitter women. We are jealous, we are envious, we are spiteful, we begrudge other people happiness and we become cold. We blame other people for our circumstances when in reality they have no power over our lives. True, some have been the cause of hurt or betrayal but above all there is One that is filtering those circumstances through His hands. When it comes down to it, the truth is, we are mad at God….although we may never admit it because it sounds like total heresy!
So, how do we deal with disappointment when we eventually discover we are angry with the Lord?
1)We must be very careful! God is holy and “other than” we are.
He is certainly big enough to handle our disappointments and anger but there is a fine line between genuine hurt and blasphemy.
2)We must realize that anger with God is short-sighted.
Do you remember the story of Joseph? Joseph couldn’t catch a break to save his life! Just about the time things seemed to quiet down for him, another trial hit. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, wrongly accused of rape, imprisoned as an innocent man and forgotten by the man that could have quickly sealed his pardon! If we leave Joseph there we are hopeless and angry with God.
What about Naomi? She left Israel with her husband and 2 sons because of a famine and traveled to the pagan land of Moab. While she is there, her sons marry pagan women and her husband dies along with both of her sons. She is now in a foreign land, far from home with no family and a gaping hole of grief in her heart. When she returns to Bethlehem and the people see her coming from afar they say, “Look, it’s Naomi!” But she cries, “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara” which means bitter. “I left here full and the Lord has brought me back empty.” (Ruth 1:20-21)If we leave Naomi here we are disappointed and angry with the Lord.
If we go on to tell the story, Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth travel back to Israel where God supplies a kinsman redeemer in the man of Boaz to marry Ruth thereby securing heirs for Naomi’s family. Boaz begat Obed, Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David! Naomi was David’s great, great grandmother which ultimately placed her in the lineage of Christ! Her great, great grandson would sit on the throne of Israel as the greatest earthly king in Israel’s history and a man after God’s own heart!
Joseph is made 2nd in command over all of Egypt and because of a God-ordained famine his brothers are driven right to his door step. He chooses FORGIVENESS and God brings all of his family to Egypt in order to preserve them from extinction. Why? Because He is true to His promises! God called a people through the seed of Abraham and He faithfully preserved them through kidnapping and wrongful imprisonment! You might say, “Why?” “Why not just supernaturally bring them some food in Canaan without all of the tragedy with Jacob? Why not save this poor man some trouble!”
I cannot even pretend to answer why or know the mind of God but I do know this: it displayed the glory of God in greater ways than we could have imagined. You see, this is God’s ways being higher than our ways! In the end, Joseph said, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good!” This is a man who believed God! This is a man who believed God was good! So, don’t be short-sighted! Even if you don’t see it, God is working it out! Trust His heart, trust His character, trust His faithfulness!
3)Anger with God is unbelief. We touched on this earlier. But this ties in with the last point. We must belief that God is good. Being angry with the Lord is fundamentally believing that God has failed or made a mistake or that He should have done differently. This is rooted in unbelief in God’s goodness, wisdom, providence…ultimately His character.
4)Anger with God is futile. There is a great quote by James Weldon Johnson that goes like this, “Young man, your arms are too short to box with God!” Enough said!
Anger with God is a lie of the devil. What a great tactic from our great adversary! If Satan can get you mad at God then loving and serving Him will be nearly impossible. I will say this more than once…know your enemy…better yet, know your God and BELIEVE HIM then your enemy will be easy to spot!
5)Anger with God is a matter of perspective. This ties all these points under bitterness together. The right perspective goes a long way. Many of you may remember a sister in Christ named Ramey who went home to be with the Lord in 2008 after a whirlwind battle with brain cancer. This story from John (Ramey’s husband) and Monica (his new wife) will show how the right perspective can starve a root of bitterness. I hope this blesses you like it has blessed me! http://vimeo.com/34722066
What an amazing testimony of God’s grace when coupled with believing God! As Monica so aptly stated, “The Lord did not come to kill, steal and destroy but to give us the abundant life. This must be the abundant life!” What faith!
As we close today I would ask you to test your heart. In the face of disappointment do you speak as Naomi or do you speak as Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
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