Moving Through Change Without Bitterness

 The other day I was spending time with the prophet Ezekiel. He was a priest who had been exiled from Jerusalem during the first deportation of Judah. The great siege and destruction of Jerusalem was yet to come. Ezekiel was now without purpose and a job, confused with everyone else in exile. But Yahweh needed prophets for his people in Babylon and he had set Ezekiel aside for this purpose.

We always focus on the great vision of Ezekiel and for good reason. Each prophet brought a different revelation of Yahweh and putting them together gives us a fuller understanding of Yahweh. But this is not a path Ezekiel would have chosen for himself.

People today chase after the office of the prophet because it is different from the Old Testament Prophet. Prophets today are part of the five-fold, the trainers in the Body of Christ. Back in the day before the Holy Spirit was given to all believers, the prophet was the voice of Yahweh, bringing his word and will for that day. This did not give the prophet favour with the leadership or the people because the prophet often had a word of correction to bring, and no one likes correction.

Ezekiel would have known Jeremiah or known of him, so he knew of the bad things that were done to this dear prophet in Jerusalem. And Ezekiel also knew that this was the norm for the prophets of Yahweh. When chosen, that person lost his old life and comfort and now stepped into the privilege of intimacy with Yahweh and a very punishing life of service. So it should not surprise us that after receiving his anointing and commission, when the wind picked him up to carry him to the deportees, we read this:

“Then the wind picked me up and took me away. With the Lord’s power pressing down against me I went away, bitter and deeply angry, and I came to the exiles who lived beside the Chebar River at Tel-abib. I stayed there among them for seven desolate days.”  Ezekiel 3:14-15

So the result of this vision and encounter, of the call and commission : “I went away, bitter and deeply angry.” Ezekiel knew what this was going to look like. Remember, he wasn’t asked if he was willing, he was simply told to go. Too often we put all the emphasis on the benefits of our relationship and so we are unprepared for the cost. There is always a cost.

Several times in my life the Lord called me to something that caused my world to shift. I knew I would have to say good-bye to what I knew and what I was comfortable with, to step into the obedience of Father’s purpose for me. There was great cost. But there was also great benefit, and the benefit far outweighed the cost. But there was a cost.

I could compare it to having a baby. There is great cost to the mom. Her life will never be the same again. There will never be another moment in her life when she won’t be a mom. There is pain in the birth. There is pain in the difficult nights, giving up plans for a sick child, and the tons of work involved in raising a child. But the benefits of having that little person pouring out their love into your life far outweighs any cost.

If we forget his benefits we run the risk of having bitterness and deep anger filling our hearts and clouding our perspective. Change is never easy. Many of us struggle with change. But change is also filled with exciting possibilities. The thing that is important to anchor yourself to is the truth that our Father never changes. Even in the chaos of the change that he is bringing about he is our anchor. We must remind ourselves of his benefits. We need to review our many testimonies of his goodness. We must declare our trust in the darkness. We must hold on to him because he is the only one who makes sense of life and provides the strength we need.

We are given the honest reactions of prophets, psalmist, servants and kings so that we can see that these are normal reactions to unusual times. But we are also given the example of how they confessed these things to the Lord and then confessed their trust in him. This is given so we know that this is how we get through life-shifting changes without bitterness and deep anger taking route.

Overcoming Bitterness

Life can be hard. It isn't necessarily the decisions we make that cause it to be that way, often it is because of other people's decisions. It is hard when other people's decisions have the potential to impact you, especially when you are young. I have to admit this is a hard one for me. If we mess up we can usually deal with it knowing it is our own fault, but when we have to work through other people's messes it can cause some bitterness and resentment. But bitterness and resentment have never added anything to anyone's life. We need to find a better way of dealing with it.

We really have no excuse for things like bitterness in our life. That and a lot of other negative emotions happen when we allow this world and things in it to be more important to us than they should be. These feelings are provoked in us when we consider our rights to be greater than someone else's. They overwhelm us when we are always looking at how things effect us instead of focusing on other people. They take root when we consider our way to be greater than God's way.

There really is only one attitude that we can maintain that will allow the character of Jesus to shine through us in every situation, and it is the attitude of thanksgiving. Too many of us concentrate on the negatives in live and it effects our attitude, mentality, perspective, emotions and health. I could understand it if this life was all there was and we needed to live it to the fullest because after this it is all done. Even writing such a drab thought brings me down. Imagine if this was it? But it's not. So it's crazy for us to allow anything in this world to have such an effect on us who are eternal creatures destined for a glorious home.

We can keep away from the negative side of things by simply being thankful for everything in our lives. Jesus has filled our lives with blessings and just the fact that he lives in us and us in him should be a daily encouragement. We also have the promises that God uses everything for our good, to benefit us. So whether we find something to be negative or positive in this world, for us it is all good and God turns it in our favour. But even this isn't exactly a proper attitude.

When we are filled with praise and thanksgiving in every situation we stop being concerned with ourselves and we start looking at how things are effecting others. People become our focus and as gratefulness buoys our spirit and eternal hope fills our heart, we are able to serve the needs of those around us. Do you not understand what Jesus was telling us when he said:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33)

Do we not understand that true worship is found in the overflow of a thankful heart? This is not a glass half full / half empty thing. This is "I am thankful for whatever is in that glass" thing. Be thankful for what you have and praise the Lord. But be thankful more for the spiritual blessings than the worldly blessings. The worldly is  just temporary, destined to spoil and fade away. The spiritual however is for eternity and if your life is rich with these things you are rich indeed. So be thankful, fill your life with others and allow Jesus to be seen in you regardless of the circumstances. Not another word of complaint but thank Jesus for everything in your life. It is there for your benefit.