Jonah 1:4, 5, 15 (NIV)
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.

When you're on a Jonah experience, when you let that root of bitterness start to grow up in you, you just purchased a ticket into the worst storm of your life. You've just payed for a ticket to take a ride into the worst storm that you could ever imagine. They were throwing everything out of the side of the boat.

You can give your car away, you can give your house away, you can become poor but you're just protecting your bitterness. The storm rages and nothing your doing wants to work for you and then you even get worse. You start blaming the devil. You never blame yourself. And the bitterness still rages within side. The storm then grows consistently worse rather than getting better until it comes to the point where there is nothing left to be thrown over the side of the ship but you.

If you don't want to travel in the belly of a whale, don't run away from the presence of God. Many of us don't like the road we have to walk down to get home. We wouldn't have had to walk down the road if we didn't run away from the principles of God and if we didn't allow this bitterness to grow.
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