Truths like these:
1. God owes us nothing.
If this isn’t a humility inducer, I don’t know what is.
If you guys are anything like me, you probably walk around with spiritual amnesia — forgetting you were at war with God until he changed your heart, forgetting you still sin against him constantly, forgetting the only thing you “deserve” is to be in Hell. I know that’s a buzz-kill, but it is a foundational truth we must stay grounded in.
If you guys are anything like me, you probably walk around with spiritual amnesia — forgetting you were at war with God until he changed your heart, forgetting you still sin against him constantly, forgetting the only thing you “deserve” is to be in Hell. I know that’s a buzz-kill, but it is a foundational truth we must stay grounded in.
Friends, any smidgen of goodness that we experience in this life is purely owing to grace. And — I think this is the most difficult part for us to embrace — God can dish out different graces to different people as he chooses. If he wants to make someone else prosper financially and not you, he has the right to do that. If he wants to grant someone else perfect health until their dying breath and not you, he has the right to do that.
God can pour out his mercies in this life in whatever way he pleases, and we haven’t a leg to stand on in complaining about it.
However, regardless of how God chooses to give or withhold in this life, he gives us so much in Jesus!
God can pour out his mercies in this life in whatever way he pleases, and we haven’t a leg to stand on in complaining about it.
However, regardless of how God chooses to give or withhold in this life, he gives us so much in Jesus!
2. God gives us everything in Christ.
And if this isn’t a gratitude inducer, I don’t know what is!
We deserve nothing but to be tormented forever by God’s righteous wrath toward our sin, but if we are in Christ, God gives us forgiveness, righteousness, and the entire world (1 Corinthians 3:23)! He has made us co-heirs with Jesus and in the age to come, we will reign with him (2 Timothy 2:12). We, being clothed with glorified bodies and minds, will shine like the sun in the glory of his Kingdom (Matthew 13:43). We will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)! And more than all these things, we will forever enjoy the incompressible pleasure of unhindered fellowship with the good, loving, and all-satisfying God.
We deserve nothing but to be tormented forever by God’s righteous wrath toward our sin, but if we are in Christ, God gives us forgiveness, righteousness, and the entire world (1 Corinthians 3:23)! He has made us co-heirs with Jesus and in the age to come, we will reign with him (2 Timothy 2:12). We, being clothed with glorified bodies and minds, will shine like the sun in the glory of his Kingdom (Matthew 13:43). We will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)! And more than all these things, we will forever enjoy the incompressible pleasure of unhindered fellowship with the good, loving, and all-satisfying God.
However, I know that even as many of you read these things, many of your hearts may still lay lifeless in ingratitude and bitterness (the struggle is real!) . . . and I think this may be because you have shortsighted vision.
3. This life is just a blip on the radar.
I think what a lot of us need more than anything is for God to drop an eternal perspective into our brains.
Brothers and sisters, the world that we live in right now — with all of its ugliness and dissatisfaction because of sin — is going to be burned with fire, and a new world will come rushing in on its heels. In this new world, there will be no more suffering — no sickness, no pain, no loneliness, no loss, no death — but only continuous pleasure and joy.
The richness of all that God is will no longer be hindered by the presence of evil, and it will overflow into every aspect of our lives. Our joy and satisfaction will run deeper than we can imagine.
Brothers and sisters, the world that we live in right now — with all of its ugliness and dissatisfaction because of sin — is going to be burned with fire, and a new world will come rushing in on its heels. In this new world, there will be no more suffering — no sickness, no pain, no loneliness, no loss, no death — but only continuous pleasure and joy.
The richness of all that God is will no longer be hindered by the presence of evil, and it will overflow into every aspect of our lives. Our joy and satisfaction will run deeper than we can imagine.
We have got to believe that this is really going to happen! If we don’t, we will keep on having weak hearts that ravenously search for hope and comfort in this world. If we don’t put all of our hopeful expectations in the Resurrection and the world to come, our joy and gratitude will fluctuate according to what we do or don’t have in this life. And this is no way for new creations in Christ to live!
Cultivating humility, gratitude, and an eternal perspective in my life by meditating on the big, awesome truths of God has been ridiculously effective in killing my bitterness toward God. He owes me nothing, yet he gives me everything. I deserve Hell, but he gives me an eternity of happiness and satisfaction. I have no reason to be bitter with God about anything, ever. He is overwhelmingly good and gracious to me in Christ.
-Matt Moore
3 Truths To Remember When I Feel Bitter Toward God
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