Book Review: Overcoming Bitterness: Moving from Life’s Greatest Hurts to a Life Filled with Joy by Stephen Viars
To some degree, bitterness is something that everyone will struggle with in a world that sin has broken. When I think about bitterness, Proverbs 14:10 comes to mind, "The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy." So what causes us to become bitter? How can we deal with our bitterness? Steven Viars answers these questions in his new book, Overcoming Bitterness: Moving from Life's Greatest Hurts to a Life Filled with Joy. Viars has been a pastor and biblical counselor at Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana, since 1987. He has vast experience in biblical counseling and approaches this topic with clarity, gentleness, and patience.
Viars explores how the Bible addresses bitterness in the book's first part. In the Old Testament, the word for bitter is marah, which is also the name that Naomi called herself after going through many trials (Ruth 1:20). In the New Testament, the Greek word is pikros, illustrated as bitter water...
