Great Bitterness

Lo, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness. (Isaiah 38:17)

Isa. 38:1-17; 11 Chr. 32:27-31, Ps. 91:15; Ps. 107:6,13,19,28; Isa 46:4; Rom. 8:28,37-39; 1 Cor. 12:9; 2 Cor. 1:10

What Is God Saying?

Hezekiah was the best of Judah's kings (1 Kings 18:5). Despite his idolatrous father, Ahaz, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (1 Kings 18:3), and the Lord was with him; wherever he went, he prospered (I Kings 18:7). Even so, his reign was not without its trials. Besides the ever-present threat of an Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib, Hezekiah became seriously ill. Even though he did what was right, everything seemed to be going against him. No doubt this despondency was magnified by the weakness that accompanies illness. He wept bitterly, turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord. Hezekiah's prayer portrays the bitterness of a man who has a job to do and a mission to accomplish, and then suddenly his tools and the strength to use them are taken away. His grief was real. His prayer was earnest. His time had come... much too soon.

Yet God, in mercy, restored him. God heard his cry and, through Isaiah, he learned that he had fifteen more years to live. Following his illness, Hezekiah did what many people fail to do (for example, when Jesus healed ten lepers, only one returned to thank him), he wrote a prayer of thanks.

How Does This Apply To Us?

While writing, I look out the study window. A dark cloud covers the sky, yet the fragile pink blossoms in our flowering plum tree are touched by the setting sun. Against the heavy clouds, those delicate petals glow with great beauty. No bitterness, no clouds, no hardships, no insoluble problems can keep the sun from shining or the tender signs of new life from appearing. God can work out and work through our circumstances. “And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).”

Pray With Me

Lord of all love and wisdom, make me able and willing to trust that, as you know the end from the beginning, so you are with me from the beginning to the end. Help me also to trust that in every circumstance, you have my welfare in mind. Thank you for sharing every burden that seems too great to bear. Thank you for holding before me the light of hope. Thank you for this verse by which I am assured that in your wise and loving purpose, even the worst can become the best.

Help me to see beyond pain that lingers, to love that never fails. May I come to the place where I can really accept the fact that You break only to make and You melt only to mold. Help me to see that dark threads have a necessary purpose in the pattern and that, to the glory of Your name, "all things work together for good."

I believe in the rightness of all your providence. Cleanse my heart of every shadow of doubt. Remove the barriers of fear and distrust and let me see the whole of life as you see it, and to say with Hezekiah, "Lo, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness."

I cannot pray for this in my own strength, for my mortal flesh rebels and, of itself, would oppose the work of grace. Yet I pray for it in the life of the Spirit, which grows stronger through discipline, richer through spending, and healthier through suffering.

To the praise of Jesus Christ, whose grace is sufficient for every trial, whose strength is made perfect in weakness. Amen.

Moving On In The Life of Prayer

"What a Friend we have in Jesus!

O what peace we often forfeit

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

The keyword is everything. In prayer, we come for the healing touch of the great physician, we come for the encouraging presence of the truest friend, and here we find in sorrow a blessing, in bitter trial a victory, in sickness of body or mind renewal, in disappointment joy, and in the end the light of his countenance whose name and whose gift is peace.