SITTING AT YOUR FEET: WHEN MY HEART IS BITTER AGAINST THE LORD?

When we forget and overlook what Our Lord did at Calvary: Ouch, that must truly hurt Him. After we have been loved and nurtured by Our Father, and then we face Him with tantrums! “Then Moses said, ‘Listen, you rebels! Do we have to draw water from this rock?’ So saying, he raised his hand and twice struck the rock with the rod (in anger at the Lord), and water gushed out in abundance, from which the assembly and its cattle drank! The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you have not trusted Me, nor have you recognized My Holiness in the presence of the Israelites, you will not be the ones to take this community to the land I have given you.’ Numbers 20:10-12. Here we see Moses throwing a tantrum in front of people. He was a shepherd of the Lord to whom He had poured out His Glory and basically His wrath was being directed toward the Lord and He was not representing Him as a Holy God. Later in the Word we see that Moses and that generation were unable to enter the promised land because of this incident.

The Lord tells us that He cannot do anything for us: then our anger sparks and we tell the Lord that we think He does not love us. We explain our point of view and all the good works we have done to him. It goes like this: ‘Well Lord, if You can’t do what I’ve asked of You, then take me Home!’ Of course, at the end of the day, the Lord makes us see that we are acting like spoiled children! If the Lord were not a Holy God, woe betide us when we begin to fight with Him! If we truly have a repentant heart, and recognize our foolishness by even thinking about arguing with the highest God, the Lord is only willing to give us a big hug…” The Lord answered Job from the storm. He said to him: ‘Who is this, who obscures my counsel with meaningless words? Get ready to confront Me, I will question you, and you will answer Me.’ Job 38:1-3. Job is a case study in which he spoke angrily against the Lord, because he had bitterness in his heart. But he realized his foolishness and lack of wisdom after the Lord has a question-and-answer session with him.

We can see another case in this regard in the Word where a man of God is angry with the Lord because He does not act as he expected: “But God said to Jonah, ‘; Are you right to be so angry about the plant? ‘Of course I do!’ he replied, ‘I’m dying of rage!’ The Lord said to him, ‘You have compassion on a plant that, without any effort on your part, grew one night and perished the next. And of Nineve, a great city where there are more than 120,000 people who do not distinguish their right from their left, and as much as cattle, should I not have pity?’ Jonah 4:9-11. Jonah didn’t realize that it wasn’t just self-satisfying. The Lord wasn’t just dealing with Jonah; There were other hundreds of thousands of people under His watchful eye. He needed to recognize that His dealings with him were flowing with His dealings with a nation and people. As members of a body there is great interweaving in what He is working in other lives. One of the worst things Satan does is convince people that if God doesn’t respond in the expected way, it’s because He doesn’t want them to be happy, that He only wants to make their lives harder than they already are: this is a lie, because as we know, the Devil is the father of lies. “When he lies, he expresses his own nature, because he is a liar. He is the father of lies!’ John 8:44.

Another example, though somewhat different, is the struggle with the Lord to receive His blessing and marvel at Him:…” ‘What’s your name? I ask the man. ‘My name is Jacob,’ he answered. Then He said to the man, ‘You will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with man, and you have conquered.’ Genesis 32:27-28. And in this case, Jacob wrestled with God because He didn’t want Him to leave until He blessed Him. Jacob wasn’t angry with the Lord, he just wanted His blessing, and he was amazed that he had seen God face to face, and that He had preserved him. This is how we should be when we seek the Lord for our petitions: we should be amazed at Him, whatever His answer may be.

MY PASTOR

You are my Shepherd, I am your sheep.
“I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and they know Me.” John 10-14
Precious Jesus Christ, You are my light and the bright Morning Star.
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to bear witness to you of these things that concern the Churches. I am the root and seed of David, the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:16.
When my steps become hard to take, Your feet load me on those steps I have to take. “He set my feet on a Rock, and planted me on firm ground.” Psalm 40:2.