SERVE GOD WITHOUT RESENTMENT

Have you ever witnessed a child throwing a temper-tantrum in the middle of a department store (hopefully it was not your own). The child may do any number of things. They may pound on the floor with their hands and feet. They may lie on the floor and scream at the top of their lungs. They may throw things or swing their arms about. Or they may be very creative and do all of these things at the same time. But in all of this the child has a purpose - he is demanding that he get his own way.

Jonah became angry with God because he didn’t get his own way. He had obeyed God (finally). He was doing what God wanted done, but God had not done what Jonah wanted done. The Bible says in Jonah 4:1, Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.

If we obey God with an attitude of unwillingness and anger then on our account it’s no better than disobedience. To act obedient while in your heart you resent it, doesn’t count as obedience. We may go through the actions, apparently obeying God. We are doing what we think we should be doing, living the kind of life we think a Christian should live. But secretly we are unhappy and angry with God for telling us to do it. We need to recognize that resentment does a lot of damage to us.

WHAT DAMAGE DOES RESENTMENT DO?

1. Resentment destroys your peace.
Then everything in life is seen through the lenses of our anger and resentment.

2. Resentment distracts you from your purpose.
Some people, deep inside their hearts, hold a grudge against God. They carry around resentment towards God. Why? They think He’s not interested in their lives or problems.

They’re convinced he doesn’t care because He hasn’t answered a particular prayer or acted on their behalf.

3. Resentment diminishes your productiveness.
It is hard to be productive when we keep our abilities to ourselves and use them for our own advantage instead of using them to benefit others and serve God.

4. Resentment distorts your perspective.
God may send us a blessing and we in our resentment may think to ourselves, “After all the things God has done for other people He is at last doing something for me.” And we act selfishly. An angry and resentful person loses his or her sense of perspective. And they begin to pick at little things.

HOW TO CONQUER RESENTMENT

• Confess it and release it.
  Take your hands off of it. Let it go. Give it to the Lord.

• Surrender the control of your life to the Lord.

• You don’t have to understand all that God does in order to obey Him.
Job 38:1-5 And now, finally, GOD answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said: "Why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you're talking about? … I have some questions for you, and I want some straight answers. Where were you when I created the earth? Tell me, since you know so much! Who decided on its size? Certainly you'll know that! Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?”

• Choose to serve God joyfully right where you are.
Psa. 100:2 Serve the LORD with gladness.