Overcoming Bitterness: Moving From Life’s Greatest Hurts to a Life Filled With JoySample

Day Six: God Can Help You Overcome Bitterness

One of the delightful aspects of the gospel is that God can help anyone change. That means if we’re struggling with any aspect of bitterness, the Lord is willing and able to engage with us in our time of need. In our final two days, we will see how God helped a woman overcome one of the worst cases of bitterness in all of the Bible. Our focus is the book of Ruth, and specifically the character of Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law. The book of Ruth provides a wonderful example of how God can help anyone overcome bitterness. 

I also love the story because Jesus is present in ways that are filled with hope. We’ll encounter a woman whose story begins with a request that everyone call her bitter and ends with a smile on her face and a baby on her knee. And not just any baby, by the way, but a baby in the line of the Messiah. 

In Ruth 1, we learn that Naomi believes in God’s sovereignty but she does not believe in His goodness. Her circumstances are difficult and painful and she feels justified to then question God’s faithfulness (Ruth 1:11-13). The climax of Naomi’s unbelief is on full display in Ruth 1:15. “Then she said, ‘Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’” Her heart’s thoughts are revealed, My God let me down. He hasn’t given me what I believe I need right now because fundamentally He is not good and is not worthy of my trust.

Listen to sweet Ruth’s response. “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God’” (1:16). That kind of simple, quiet trust is the antidote for bitterness. It expresses trust in and commitment to not just God’s sovereignty but also His fundamental goodness.

As you wrestle with bitterness, does the way you describe yourself and your situation move you closer to the Lord or farther away? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” Solomon explained (Proverbs 18:21). That includes the way we speak about what is happening around us, in us, and to us. Listen to the words that come from your own lips—the words we speak reveal the thoughts and condition of our heart.

Do you ever tell yourself or others lies in order to justify your bitterness? Ask God to shape your heart and mind with His understanding of any situation you are currently facing.