Don't get bitter, get better

by Paulette Harper
(Richmond, CA USA)

Ruth 1:20-22 (Amplified Bible)
And she said to them, Call me not Naomi pleasant; call me Mara bitter, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?

If you have never read this story, here we have a woman whose life was drastically changed. First, she and her husband, Elimelech, and their two sons left Bethlehem because of a severe famine.

Looking for a better life, they journeyed to Moab. While in Moab, Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, dies, and ten years later, her two sons die, leaving her to care for her two daughters-in-law. Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem, but upon returning she has no husband or sons, instead a bitter heart.

I can’t recall how many times I have read this passage of scripture and each time God would speak to my heart. I believe all the scriptures are written to teach us valuable lessons that will be taught through life’s experiences. I had no idea the one day I had to practice applying this principle to my life.

Just as Naomi did not understand why God had chosen to take her through one of the most challenging experiences in life, I pondered as well. Just like a child growing up in life you have expectation and plans that usually don’t include bruises and bumps in the road.

But I found that even when the unexpected things in life do occur, God has a plan and purpose to make something good out of the worse situations.

At 42 years of age I found hope, encouragement and a renewed spirit while going through a divorce. Although my plight was not one in which I welcomed or embraced I had to accept that this part of my life God had already know about before the foundation of the world.

He was taking me through one of the most unpleasant times in my life but I had to trust that the one in which I had given my life to knew exactly what was best for me and there was something about my life that He was going to reveal and what I had faced and conquered was really going to alter my life forever.

I had one choice to make either I was going to allow myself to be bitter with what He had allowed to happen or I was going to let the situation develop and make me into a better person, I decided to use the situation to make me better.

God was using my situation to bring me to a place of maturity, confidence and total dependency on Him. I learned not to look at my current condition although quite hard at times but I had to realize that some day God would show me why He had chosen me to carry this particular cross.

A lot of things we go through in life are not for us at all but it’s for someone else, who is in need of encouragement, help and support.

The bigger picture

There was a bigger picture that God had for my life, a picture that was revealed at the beginning of 2007. God wanted me to begin telling people what He had did for me during my ordeal and How He carried me through the rages of life.

How would God want me to do that? Since I was already a minister and speaking was part of my life how was I going to carry out this mandate from God?

God didn’t take long to reveal how He wanted me to accomplish that and it was through writing. He has expanded my ministry to include writing about my own personal experiences.

When I hear over and over how my experiences in life have ministered to thousands of people, I’m so thankful to God for how my life has transformed. God had a wonderful plan and purpose for my life even when I couldn’t see how things were going to turn out.

So many times I wanted to give up, throw in the towel and quit but something inside me would not let me. Gods’ spirit was constantly bringing comfort to me, guiding me and assuring me that everything was going to work out for my good.

Romans 8:28 (Amplified Bible):
We are assured and know that ]God being a partner in their labor all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose.

Women of God I encourage you this day. Even when it appears that things don’t always go according to our plans, God plans are better. Choose to let the disappointments in life make you into a better woman, a better mother, a better sister, a better wife. Don’t allow your heart to become bitter with was has happened, embrace the changes, embrace the new things, embrace the season of new beginnings.

Allow God to take all that has happened in your life, pleasant and unpleasant, and make your life a praise on the earth. Your life will never be the same.