Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Bitterness puts dreams behind us

With all that happened in Joseph's life it would have been easy for him to become bitter against God. Instead of blaming God for all his pain he declared God as the one who "made me forget all my trouble". Instead of accusing God of being the one has robbed him of his dream he said, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." He chose to continue to love and trust God instead of hate Him.

I am sure Joseph had his moments of anger or even possibly dissallusionment with God but somehow he did not allow it to settle into his spirit. Bitterness is the establishing of roots from unresolved anger. There is nothing necissarily wrong with anger. God understands it-even experiences it. But anger will turn sour in our hearts if it is not properly expressed or resolved. It will begin to poison all our relationships and eventually lead us to turn away from God.

If we turn away from God in bitterness our dreams are now behind us. If we face God, especially in our setbacks and failures, our dream remains in front of us. Remember, it is God's Spirit who gives dreams and it is God's Spirit who fulfills them in and through us.

May we embrace God in our difficult journey toward dreams fulfilled. May we love and trust him in the dark places and let no root of bitterness be established in our hearts. Dream On!

Hebrews 12:15 (NLT) 15 Look after each other so that none of you will miss out on the special favor of God. Watch out that no bitter root of unbelief rises up among you, for whenever it springs up, many are corrupted by its poison.

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