Don't get bitter, get better | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Don't get bitter, get better | Previous Challenge Entry
By Paulette Harper
06/02/09
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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.

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, flat tires, accidents and bumps in the road.

At 42 years of age I found hope, encouragement and a renewed spirit while going through a divorce. Although my dilemma was not one in which I welcomed or embraced I had to accept that this part of my life God had known 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. 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 or I was going to let the situation develop and make me into a better person, I decided to use the situation as a catalyst to make my life better.

God was using my circumstances 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.

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. My first inspirational book That Was Then, This Is Now, This Broken Vessel Restored was birthed from my pain.

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.

Naomi’s plight:
God allowed her husband and both sons to die in order to get her and Ruth back to Bethlehem so Ruth and Boaz could meet. Ruth and Boaz had a son
named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, and Jesse, was the father of David the King, who was the father of Solomon.

After a lineage of forty–two generations, we get to Jacob, who was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, who birthed Christ. God caused Naomi to lose everything she loved so that He could get her into position of receiving more than she could ever have gotten in Moab.

Naomi had no idea of the plan God had in store for her and Ruth. Sometimes when we are faced with hardships beyond measure it’s hard for us to even grasp or accept that things can get better. This is when you must exercise your faith. It is in this place where your faith will be tested, stretched and tired.

The choice is yours, choose this day to allow God to turn your bitter situation into something sweet!

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