Are You Bitter or Better?

Need some good advice? Be careful who you listen to, especially those who endorse your sin and dysfunction. A scornful person is someone who is bitter. They feel entitled by their anger, but they don’t want to be alone so they’ll campaign for others to join their pity party. They draw you in with false compassion by using comments like, “I’d be mad too if that happened to me.” “I’d leave too if I had to put up with that.” At first, these types of comments may make you feel better because they acknowledge your pain, but the temporary better soon turns bitter.

Psalm 1:1 warns us about this type of person: “Don’t sit in the seat with the scornful or the mocker.” What exactly does that mean? In modern-day terminology it means don’t hang out with, don’t chill with or don’t spend time with people who are arrogant, sarcastic scoffers. We become like those we spend time with. Scorners will take you down with them. They’ll agree with your dysfunction because they need the company you provide. They need you to stay miserable with them because they don’t want to be alone in their pain. Instead, delight yourself in truth. Then you’ll be like a tree planted by streams of living water. The heat of adversity may threaten to destroy you, but it won’t! When your roots are connected to the source of life, whatever you do will prosper.