II Corinthians 1:4 “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Have you ever thought of the word bitter? I am not necessarily talking about foods like apple cider vinegar, grapefruit or dill pickles. I am instead talking about the bitterness in your heart. Synonyms for bitter in that sense are angry, sore and resentful. Not one of those are desired attributes to have in our heart. When we are bitter we focus on just one person-self. We focus on what we do not have, what we have lost, where we think our life should be. We put all the attention on the “i” in bitter, on self! We have our pity parties; we wallow in our sorrow, and we want to complain to the Lord. After dwelling on the “I” we eventually will become more and more bitter, more and more rancid, thus less usable for the Lord.
Some antonyms of bitter are sweet, warm, sympathetic, loving and gentle. If we change the “i” in bitter to an “e” in better then our focus will be on everyone else rather than our own self.
There are many, many broken hearts out there that need help and the comfort of the Lord. We may not know what burdens our sisters in Christ carry, yet we should put them before our own self.We will all become a better person if our focus is sharing what we have learned from our losses and heartaches at the foot of the cross. Our own bitterness and anger is overpowered by His love, His sweetness, His sympathy all leading us to look to everyone else’s needs. We have the comfort of Christ to share with others through our relationship with our Saviour.
Let’s replace the “i” in bitter with the “e” in better. That will take the focus off of self and share God’s focus with everyone else!
By Doris Hutton
Counted Faithful 