The godless in heart harbor resentment. Job 36:13 (NIV)
Heavenly Father, this one little verse is bringing big conviction this morning. Today, I confess the ease with which I can generate feelings of resentment towards people, inanimate things, and circumstances. Whether it’s the GPS that misdirects my drive or the loud talker who interrupts my dinner; airplane delays or unreturned texts; wrinkleless shirts that wrinkle, or rubbernecking drivers dawdling like inquisitive snails; too much junk email or too little sunshine; overcooked steaks or under-fixed cars. No matter its source, resentment never helps; it only robs, steals, and kills.
To harbor resentment is nothing short of giving hospitality to an outlaw, for resentment is bent on criminal activity: Stealing peace and vandalizing health, robbing relationships and killing kindness, spewing toxins and sabotaging hope—to name a few of resentment’s crimes. There’s no greater waste of energy than resentment, bitterness, and cynicism.
But worst of all, Father, resentment is a contradiction—a blatant misrepresentation of who you are and how you relate to us in Jesus. If anyone has a right to be vexed of spirit, with eye-rolling irritation and shame-doling disdain, it’s you.
Yet you don’t treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is your love for those who fear you; as far as the east is from the west, that’s how far you’ve removed our transgressions from us. You’re the Father who has compassion on us as your children (Ps. 103:10–13). You show us neither annoyance of spirit nor exasperation of heart, so great is your love for us in Jesus. You remain calm and kind towards us.
So, Father, by the love that sent Jesus to the cross and by the power that raised him from the dead, continue to “chillax” and change my heart. I even want to be free from resenting other people’s resentment. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ wonderful and merciful name.