{"id":1678,"date":"2020-01-15T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2019-12-28T08:36:30","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T13:36:30","slug":"one-bitter-heart-one-bitter-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2020\/01\/15\/one-bitter-heart-one-bitter-life\/","title":{"rendered":"ONE BITTER HEART, ONE BITTER LIFE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201c<\/strong>Rachel said to her father, \u201cDon\u2019t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I\u2019m having my period.\u201d So he searched but could not find the household gods.\u201d Genesis 31:35 NIV<\/em><\/strong>
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Today\u2019s verse is a classic child lying to her dad scenario. Rachel is leaving her homeland with her husband Jacob.  She doesn\u2019t feel like she is getting the inheritance she deserves from her father, Laban. She has been told by her husband not to do this.  She is in rebellion to both men. She\u2019s lying to both men. Rachel has a heart issue, left unattended, it affects the rest of her life.
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Rachel and Jacob\u2019s story is not normal.  Jacob worked 7 years for Laban to marry her.  When he had finally completed his duty, Laban, sends Leah into the marital tent.  Leah was Rachel\u2019s older sister, custom said she had to marry first. When Jacob found out he confronted his father-in-law.  Laban told him he\u2019d have to work another 7 years to marry Rachel. Jacob does it, he works 14 years to marry Rachel. Interesting love triangle Jacob, Leah and Rachel have together.  
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All of these years later, Jacob is finally able to leave Laban and head home with his brides.  But Rachel has stolen household gods from her father (Genesis 31: 19 NIV<\/a>).  The sad part to her story, she didn\u2019t need her father\u2019s inheritance.  Jacob didn\u2019t need her father\u2019s inheritance, he was successful without it.  They had God\u2019s blessing on their life, they didn\u2019t need anything else. Rachel\u2019s sense of entitlement is planting a bitter root in her heart.  Instead of trusting God\u2019s blessings, she\u2019s decided to bless herself. In her act of rebellion, she planted a root of bitterness. Acts of rebellion plant bitter seeds.
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Acts of rebellion plant bitter seeds.<\/strong>
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Rachel wasn\u2019t caught.\u00a0 Neither her father nor Jacob ever knew as far as I know.\u00a0 There is not one act of \u201cpunishment\u201d so to speak, for her actions.\u00a0 However, her life wasn\u2019t great after this happened. She struggled to get pregnant, Jacob falls in love with Leah, and she dies a painful death in childbirth.\u00a0 Her bitter heart led her to a bitter life.
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Rachel\u2019s ultimate problem was bitterness.  She was bitter she wasn\u2019t getting all that she felt she deserved.  In today\u2019s world, this is called entitlement. We feel entitled to a certain lifestyle, certain income, certain inheritance.  When we feel entitled to something, then don\u2019t receive it, we become bitter. When we become bitter, we\u2019re planting a bitter root in our hearts.   Bitterness grows as we feed it with more and more lies of what we think we deserve. If we\u2019re not careful, we\u2019ll become like Rachel, and live a bitter life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question of the Day:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do your actions say about what is growing in your heart?
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Further Reading:<\/strong> Genesis 31:17-32:12 NIV<\/a>, Matthew 10:24-11:6 NIV<\/a>, Psalm 13:1-6 NIV<\/a>, Proverbs 3:16-18 NIV<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cRachel said to her father, \u201cDon\u2019t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I\u2019m having my period.\u201d So he searched but could not find the household gods.\u201d Genesis 31:35 NIV Today\u2019s verse is a classic child lying to her dad scenario. Rachel is leaving her homeland with her husband Jacob. … Continue reading ONE BITTER HEART, ONE BITTER LIFE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1685,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}