This week the blog is sponsored by Baker Books and is adapted from Stephen Viars’ new book Overcoming Bitterness: Moving from Life’s Greatest Hurts to a Life Filled with Joy.
Do you have any bitterness in your life? As a pastor attempting to shepherd our church family through a worldwide pandemic, I have had a front-row seat to many stories of sadness, heartache, and disappointment. It has been difficult to watch my brothers and sisters suffer, along with many other members of our community.
Personally, I have struggled to properly handle government lockdowns, budgetary pressure, and a variety of competing positions in our congregation about masks, vaccines, and appropriate ways to minister in these uncharted waters. How does our sovereign God want us to respond to such challenges?
We certainly do not have to back away quietly as if our faith is incapable of facing such realities. In Scripture God often uses the word bitter to describe the experiences of his children. We are told that Joseph endured bitter attacks from his brothers (Genesis 49:22-26), that the Egyptians made the Hebrew’s lives bitter with hard labor (Exodus 1:13-14), and that Hannah was provoked bitterly by her mean-spirited rival (1 Sam.
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