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When Things Don t Go Your Way · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: January twenty six. When things don't go your way, let
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  Speaker 1: all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamor and slander
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  Speaker 1: be put away from you, along with all malice. Ephesians,
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  Speaker 1: chapter four, verse thirty one. Most, if not all, of
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  Speaker 1: us know what it is like to wake up with
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  Speaker 1: the thought that life isn't anywhere near what we would
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  Speaker 1: like it to be. Perhaps you felt like that when
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  Speaker 1: you woke up today. Physically, emotionally, relationally, financially, and even spiritually.
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  Speaker 1: We may be facing especially difficult days, and as a
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  Speaker 1: result we're tempted to become disillusioned. What are we to do?
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  Speaker 1: One helpful place to start is by asking God for
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  Speaker 1: his protection from three powerful sources of spiritual trouble, the
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  Speaker 1: silent killers of bitterness, resentment, and self pity. These three
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  Speaker 1: will slowly strangle our faith and spill over into envy
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  Speaker 1: and malice toward those who have what we so want. So,
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  Speaker 1: in the situations we face, perhaps known only to us
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  Speaker 1: and to God, we need his help in responding with
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  Speaker 1: soft hearts instead of harsh spirits. In his letter to
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  Speaker 1: the believers in Ephesus, Paul encouraged, in fact commanded them
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  Speaker 1: to put away all bitterness, wrath, and anger. While it's
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  Speaker 1: easier said than done, Paul's command itself is that straightforward.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, there's never a command in the Word of
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  Speaker 1: God that we cannot obey, no matter how difficult it seems.
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  Speaker 1: For God always empowers what he commands. So if he
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  Speaker 1: says get rid of something, you and I can be
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  Speaker 1: certain that He can apply the power of the spirit
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  Speaker 1: within our lives to enable us to do what He's commanded.
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  Speaker 1: When we live with bitterness, resentment, or self pity filling
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  Speaker 1: our hearts, then we have only ourselves to blame. Much
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  Speaker 1: as I may want to, I can't put the responsibility
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  Speaker 1: on God. Individual who could have argued that her circumstances
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  Speaker 1: legitimized these three poisonous feelings is Hannah, whose story we
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  Speaker 1: read of at the beginning of One Samuel. She must
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  Speaker 1: have battled each one as another month passed by without
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  Speaker 1: her falling pregnant, and as another day brought the taunts
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  Speaker 1: of her husband's other wife and the sight of the
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  Speaker 1: children God had given to that woman. But she took
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  Speaker 1: her frustrations and sadness and she did something good with them.
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  Speaker 1: She prayed, She poured her heart out to God, and
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  Speaker 1: knowing she was heard, she walked away at peace. Although
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  Speaker 1: at that point her body remained infertile and her circumstances
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  Speaker 1: remained unchanged, her spirit had been freed by her heavenly father.
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  Speaker 1: God protected Hannah from the silent killers of bitterness, resentment,
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  Speaker 1: and self pity, and he will protect us too. You
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  Speaker 1: don't need to stay awake at night then trying to
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  Speaker 1: ensure that your life works out how you want it to,
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  Speaker 1: and you don't need to be dominated by that sinking
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  Speaker 1: feeling upon awakening to a another day of unwanted circumstances. Rather,
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  Speaker 1: you can use those moments to learn the value of
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  Speaker 1: leaving your heart's questions and the situations you don't understand
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  Speaker 1: in God's care, which after all, is exactly where they belong.
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  Speaker 1: Devotional material is taken from the Truth for Life Daily Devotionals,
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  Speaker 1: copyright Alister Begg, published by The Good Book Company. This
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  Speaker 1: reading was digitally created for Truth for Life and is
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  Speaker 1: used with permission. For more clear relevant Bible teaching, visit
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  Speaker 1: Truthfolife dot org.