Survivor Secrets: Embracing the Bitter Meal

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.

Isaiah 30:20-21 

By the prompting of the Holy Spirit, in this season of my life, I have been impressed to read Isaiah. I had read it once before and I have been lead to read it again. I know that my Lord Almighty requires that I surrender to His reading list. 

This morning I was camping out in Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30:20-21 was one pair of verses that stood out to me. Bread and water are an essential diet for human beings. By that I mean that if we were to look at the most basic needs for human survival then food and water would be on the list. 

Survival. 

The Secrets to Survival

The secrets to survival in this world are in the Bible. But, lets take a look at survival what these verses teach us about the subject. What is the principle that our loving Father want us to learn?

Isaiah 30:21 reveals that the Lord gives the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. I did some research on the meanings of adversity and affliction in the original language, Hebrew. The Hebrew word for adversity is tsar tsar which means 'a tight place' which is indicative of trouble. For affliction, the Hebrew word lachats which means 'oppression' is used.

The question I have for our Father is:

Why? 

Father, why would you want to give me such unpleasant 'food'? Shouldn't bread and water be something that is palatable? I want to eat food and drink water that taste good if I have to survive by ingesting them! 

Friends, I can hear Father even now as He responds: "I give you this food for your survival."

It's that simple.

How can we grow big and strong and tall without proper nourishment? Like the psalmist Asaph, in Psalm 73:17, in the presence of the Lord, we start to understand. We begin to see things, this world, from our heavenly Father's perspective: 

The very best that it seems our Father has for us is often the most painful. 

But!

It doesn't end there because Father tells us why in those same verses: the bad times come so that He can teach us. 

Bad times are character building for the Christian.

Read Survivor Secrets: Fix Your Focus to learn about the time the Lord encouraged me to keep looking at Him during the storm.

In the bad times, if we trust his unfailing love for us he will teach us the way to walk or live. He shows us the direction to take during those dark times. 

The bad times are supposed to transform us into children who have the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:5), children who bear the fruit, or the sign, of the of the Spirit of the living God (Galatians 5:22-23).

My Testimony

I remember that there were some hard lessons I had to learn especially at the tail end of my marriage that ended in divorce. I remember that, about 2 years before the divorce, the Lord said to me in my spirit, "Forgive your husband."

I responded, "But, Lord, I..."

I stopped myself. I realized I was being superficial with my Father. I decided to open up my heart because I knew it made no sense to hide from him. Christ teaches us in Mark 7:14-25 that it is our intrinsic motivation to do evil that defiles us. We steal, slander others, lie, commit sexual immorality first in our thoughts before we do the acts. By nature, we are sinners (Ephesians 2:3). 

So, I spoke from 'within'. I asked Father, "What if I don't forgive him?" and immediately the Lord gave me vision. I saw myself with an enormous burden on my back. For the rest of my life, my back bowed under the pressure the burden of unforgiveness. Needless to say, I realized how serious our Father is about forgiving others. I thought I was forgiving others but I realize that my 'forgiveness muscle' was not yet tried until I had a great weight to lift in order to make it strong. 

About a year after, I was the audience to confessions of years of infidelity. When my children's father confessed to engaging in multiple extramarital affairs, it hurt tremendously but I decided that I would forgive. I had never forgotten the little conversation I had with our Father. He had asked for forgiveness and I remembered how greatly I would be suffering under the weight of unforgiveness, but I just didn't know how to... forgive all of that mess! I was hurt! Devastated! I was betrayed and it hurt like nothing else I had ever experienced. 

I prayed for the Lord to help me to forgive him.

With time, and much effort to focus on loving him as a child of God, and with a forever long measure of help from the Lord, I managed to let it go. Every time the pain rose in my heart and would spill out of my eyes in hot tears, I asked the Lord to help me to love him. And true love includes forgiving their crappy actions! 

This crappy, painful, heartbreaking situation was my bread and water. This bread and water that is for my survival. In order to survive, we cannot harbour unforgiveness in our hearts. 

At an all night prayer and fasting session at my church, a sister shared her survival secret to beating breast cancer. The Lord showed her that the remedy for her ailment was forgiveness. After she started forgiving those who had hurt her with the Lord's help, her healing started. Unforgiveness, resentment and bitterness are at the root of many illnesses! You can read this article that states that 61% of cancer sufferers have forgiveness issues. 

Thank You, Father, for that hard lesson.

So Friends...

When they hurt you, reject you, and forget you, it is the opportune time to learn golden lessons of survival in this world. Do you see now that our heavenly Father never left you? In the pain, He is right there in the boat with you but He's trying to teach you how to trust Him, how to live, how to walk, how to talk if you will only listen to His still small voice in the roar of the storm. You will smile again! All storms have an expiration date!

Tips to Make the Most of the Meal

Are you struggling with illness, a broken relationship, financial woes, loss of any kind? I suggest that you spend more time connecting with our Lord Jesus Christ. Feed your mind with spiritual food such as worship music, Bible-based preaching and more time reading the Bible in talking with Father. Listen to Him. Practise being still in order to hear His words in your spirit. You should also try journaling your experiences through the storm and then you'll have record of the testimony for future reference. Your children can also get to read how the Lord helped you through the hard seasons. Document the lessons you learned. 

It's Your Turn to Share! 

So what's your testimony about the bread of adversity and the water of affliction? What lessons did you learn and how did you manage the meal? Share your story with us in the comments below. It may save a life! 

God bless you!