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Thank You for the Bitter Things
Written by Tasse Anderberg, 2010-07-29
All things serve Him.
Psalms 119:91b
Thank you for the bitter things,
They’ve been a friend to grace.
They’ve driven me from the paths of ease,
to storm the secret place.
By
Florence White Willett
I came across this little portion of a poem about the same time I noticed the above scripture. They seemed to carry a message that deserves our attention: if all things really serve Him, like this scripture suggests, then the bitter things are also His servants. That is life changing in so many respects. The painful accidents that we attribute to the fallen world suddenly come under His umbrella of protection and purpose. There are not accidents; He is large enough to cover even the ugly and difficult.
This is one of the most difficult weeks of the year for me. I had not necessarily planned to run this devotion on this week, it just “fell that way.” This week I remember the two anniversaries of the deaths of my two husbands; the dates are one day apart. How easily I could have let that be an “accident”-- surely a loving God would not place two such life-changing tragedies on subsequent dates. But He did, and I receive it from His all-wise hand. This poem becomes the cry of my heart. I want to storm the secret place and dig all those “treasures of darkness” (Isaiah 45:3) out of such events.
There is much growth in our walk when we realize how big the Lord is and we allow Him to be expansive. The bitter things become our friends; the less we understand, the more we trust. If we continue to call on Him as “the Lord who is good and does good,” (Psalms 119:68) the more we honor Him and are content with difficulties that are unexplained to us. He is able to love us in, and through, the bitter things. His ability and grace are never outdone.
Loved ones, if you have such events in your life, “storm the secret place!” Call on Him again and again, with all your might. He will be there for you and guide you into His secret place of suffering, perhaps, but also into sweet and eternal fellowship.
“See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
I will not yield my glory to another.
Isaiah 48:10&11
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