Dealing with Resentment

 

“To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.”                                        Job 5:2 (GNT)

If you hang on to resentment, it will always hurt you more than anyone else. 

Resentment is self-destructive and will devastate your ministry.

If any guy ever had a reason to be resentful, it was Job. 

He was a godly man, who had everything he wanted—wealth, fame, and a great family. One day he lost it all. 

Enemy nations killed all his livestock. 

All of his children were killed. 

He got a terrible disease. 

He literally lost almost everything he had. 

Then his friends came along and said, “Job, it’s all your fault.”

Though Job had every reason to be resentful, he tells us that resentment is a bad idea. Job says, “To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do” (Job 5:2 GNT).

You might have every reason to be resentful, too. 

Maybe you’ve been hurt by someone in your church. Maybe ministry demands have damaged your family.

Job shows us we have a choice. 

 

He knew he didn’t have time to be resentful. 

He knew it was foolish, senseless, and illogical. 

If you think back through experiences in your own life, you’ll probably agree. We can do silly things when we’re caught up in resentment. 

We’ll say, “I’m going to get him!” Then we often do the ridiculous to make that happen. 

When we give in to resentment, we act in self-destructive ways and hurt ourselves much more than those we’re holding grudges against.

 

It’s like a scene from the old comedy act, “The Three Stooges.” Mo kept hitting Curly on the chest. 

Curly said, “I’m going to get even with that guy. I’m going to stop him!” So he took a stick of dynamite and strapped it to his own chest. 

Then he said, “Next time he slaps me, it’s going to blow his hand off!!”

That’s what happens when we’re resentful—we do really dumb things to try to get even with people. 

It makes us miserable in the process and never ends with us getting what we want.

 

So why do it? 

Don’t hold on to your resentment. 

Let it go. Forgive.