{"id":3425,"date":"2019-03-07T11:20:39","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T11:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=3425"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:22:05","slug":"bitterness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2019\/03\/07\/bitterness\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitterness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Throughout the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/\/p\/beyond-suffering-bible-nlt\/9781414395586\">Beyond Suffering Bible<\/a> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joniandfriends.org\/\">Joni Eareckson Tada<\/a> shares personal insights on how God can use anything, even suffering, to bring us closer to him and display his glory. When our lives don\u2019t go the way we want, when the suffering and pain seem too much to bear we have a choice, we can either rely on God or let bitterness consume us. Read what Joni has to say about a time when God brought her face-to-face with her own tendency to hold on to bitterness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joniandfriends.org\/\">Joni Eareckson Tada<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Troubles. Hardships. Calamities. Ever heard that old adage,\n\u201cBad things come in threes\u201d? It\u2019s only folk wisdom, but somehow it seems true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bitterness was a temptation for me in the early days of my\nparalysis. Deep inside I knew it was wrong, but I justified myself by saying,\n\u201cSurely God won\u2019t mind if I let off a little steam now and then. After all, I\nam paralyzed!\u201d But as many of us have learned, indulging in bitterness leads us\ndown a path to even more despair and bitterness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Untitled-design-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3426\" width=\"272\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Untitled-design-3.jpg 800w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Untitled-design-3-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Untitled-design-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Untitled-design-3-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As if that trouble wasn\u2019t enough, God added a second\nhardship. Several months into my hospital stay, I had an operation on my lower\nspine. After the surgery, I was forced to life face down for fifteen days while\nthe stiches healed. \u201cI am sick and tired of this,\u201d I complained out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, the third distress came: I caught the flu. Suddenly,\nnot being able to move was peanuts compared to not being able to breathe. I was\nmiserable! But as I thought about it, I understood what God was doing. No\nlonger was my bitterness a tiny trickle; it was a raging torrent that could not\nbe ignored. It was as if God was holding my anger up before my face and saying\nlovingly but firmly, \u201cStop turning your head and looking the other way. This\nbitterness has got to go. What are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/SurgicalSmall.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3427\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The pressure had gotten so strong that I was either going to\ngive the situation over to him completely or allow myself to wallow in\nbitterness. Faced with that ultimatum, I was able to clearly see what a wicked\ncourse bitterness would be. Sometimes troubles, hardships, and distresses\u2014in\ngroups of three (or more!)\u2014back us into a corner and force us to seriously\nconsider the lordship of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Lord, when troubles\npile on, may I look to you for help and hope.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/02\/Joni-Eareckson-Tada-Small.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3428\" \/><figcaption> <br>Find out more about Joni and her team at <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2UUXgEZ\">Joni and Friends<\/a> . <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Looks Inside the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperturn-view.com\/?pid=MTU15239\"> <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperturn-view.com\/?pid=MTU15239\">Beyond Suffering Bible<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the Beyond Suffering Bible Joni Eareckson Tada shares personal insights on how God can use anything, even suffering, to bring us closer to him and display his glory. When our lives don\u2019t go the way we want, when the suffering and pain seem too much to bear we have a choice, we can either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,15,44,45,52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5821,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions\/5821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- LIVE: wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com/nlt//wp-json/wp/v2/posts/3425 -->