“A Game of Thrones?

Recently, I made the mistake of seeing a video that I later learned came from the HBO series “Game of
Thrones”. I didn’t know what the video entailed until I saw it, and frankly, it was disturbing. A man in
shackles having his hand cut off by another with a sword, and screaming when he realized exactly what
had happened.

Researching this show, I discovered (quite quickly) that such maiming and outright killing was pretty
commonplace in the series, which is all based on a series of books by the author George R.R. Martin.
The king himself, Ned Stark, was beheaded, while another man was killed by having molten gold
dumped on his head. All of these deaths and other incidents depicted in gory, graphic detail, visually
shocking to say the least, and vividly rendered so as to stay with the viewer.

In prayer about this, however, the Lord pointed out something to me…

In one manner or another, we may all end up playing the “game of thrones”.

I was harboring a great deal of resentment against my brother for the things he did to me (domestic
violence and terror on a scale few would believe). I did not want to admit it, but deep inside, I was
bitter for what he did to me, envious that no matter what he did to me that my mom favored him (the
family dynamics were to say the least dysfunctional), and thus resentful of him.

But as I prayed, I was reminded of Scripture:

“Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of
one another. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the
devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his
own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no
unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification
according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
(Ephesians 4:25-34, NASB)

When I looked up the word for “bitterness” in the Greek lexicon, it was defined as “bitter hatred,
resentfulness”. That pretty much defined what I was feeling, and admittedly, that didn’t sit well with
me. I really didn’t want that to be true, but yet it was and that showed an aspect of me that I was very
uncomfortable with. I began to try defending how I felt to the Lord, telling Him “how much my brother
and family had hurt me”, and how I “needed to keep my guard up in case they ever tried to hurt me
again”.

I was led to more Scripture:

“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent
them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For
He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon
saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,
saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the
Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could
obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not
right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the
intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the
bondage of iniquity.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that
nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (Acts 8:14-24, NASB)

It was then that I got what the Lord was trying to show me in His word, and how it connected to what I
had brought to Him in prayer:

In the “Game of Thrones” series, there is a lot of envy, bitterness, strife, and outright murder. And all
of this for the “Iron Throne”, a throne made literally of swords. But in our own hearts, we can end up
putting ourselves on our own “thrones”, which can be just as hard and unforgiving as we can be. When
we are bitter and resentful, we store that within ourselves, and that becomes a vitriolic acid to the soul
and spirit, eating away at our joy and peace until all that are left are pain, fury, bitterness and pride. We
ensconce ourselves ever more on that throne as the bitterness eats at us, until we are hardened and no
longer willing to forgive or let go of our bitter hatred.

Second, when we are that bitter and filled with resentment, we can end up “slaying” other people in our
hearts, just as surely as the characters in the series were killing and harming one another physically.
We begin to take upon ourselves the role of “judge, jury and executioner” all in one. We become
determined to stay on that “throne”, making it into our “judgment seat” and deciding for ourselves
what right and wrong should be. We begin to take it out of the hands of the Lord, who is the only truly
objective person to ever live, and take judgment of others into our subjective point of view. A point of
view that is flawed, doesn’t have all the facts, cannot see into a person’s heart, and is furthermore
poisoned with the same bitterness, resentment and anger that placed us there in the first place. We sit
on that throne, and the very thin that gained it for us is what DESTROYS us!

And if we are on that throne, where does that leave the Lord and HIS throne?

Yet another danger of holding onto such bitterness is that it can give Satan a tremendous advantage
against us, giving him a “handle”, if you will, to try to manipulate us and tempt us into sin. If the
Adversary can whisper in your ear (and he does, believe me!) and use your bitterness and resentment as
“reasons” for you to do what he is suggesting, then he will do so. And if he cannot tempt us into sin, he
will most definitely try to push us into it; Satan is very smooth, and is all too capable of making a really
bad idea seem like the “world’s best idea”, or attempting to drive us into it by trying to drive our
emotions. Either way, Satan is very influential; with his intellect, he is more than capable of out-talking
us, out-figuring us, and down-right outsmarting us!

Adam and Eve found that out the hard way.

In contrast, when we surrender to the Lord, He seeks to heal us from the pain that causes the bitterness,
envy and anger. But it is a process; it takes time to surrender every bit of ourselves to Him, as He
examines the injured and festering “wounds” that all of us have from sin. And as the Great Physician,
he skillfully operates, removing those parts over time that have died and healing the wounds within, if
we let Him. Bitterness and resentment are the “infected tissue” left from old grievous wounds that still
linger, and we can tend to cling to them tightly in reactive pain, not wanting them to hurt any more. But
the Lord will not pry our hands from those wounds.

In contrast to Satan, the Lord isn’t seeking to trick us, but to heal and restore us.

Scripture tells us for a reason to “let go of all bitterness, envy and strife”; the Lord has seen what it
does, and that it can be used against us. But a final point that was made to me was that if we are to
represent Jesus Christ to this world, we need to reflect Him as much as possible. In his time on Earth,
as well as all the time that we walk with Him, we never see Him resentful, or bitter, or envious, or
consumed with “gall” (as scripture puts it). And while the Lord doesn’t expect us to be perfect
(remember, Salvation and Sanctification are processes.), we need to bring our bitterness, anger, envy
and yes, even ego, to Him in prayer.

Lord, I humbly come before your Throne of Grace; I have been consumed with bitterness and wrath,
and envious of others who I thought were gaining more than I. I surrender my ego, bitterness and anger
to You, and repent of my sin against You, and ask for Your forgiveness. In Jesus Christ’s precious
name I ask and pray this, Amen.

Remember: the Lord’s throne was never made of swords…

YBIC,

-Robert