When Life Gives You Lemons ~ Debbie Fredericks
Summer is almost here, and we are ready for front porch sitting and sipping some sweet lemonade!
How often we hear, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”…BUT what happens when we would rather throw lemons!
(I had a box of cards once that said, “ When life gives you lemons make lemonade”…but what happens when life gives you Brussel Sprouts.)
We associate lemons with a sour taste, a taste by itself that makes us cringe. We all laugh at a baby’s first experience with tasting a lemon. As with life we are presented with facing sour and unpleasant situations and by themselves we will cringe and despise them; at this point, we aren’t laughing.
What are some of life’s lemons we face?
Death, illness, family divisions, abuse, neglect, friends forsaking us, private pains…List goes on.
(Often the private unimaginable pains are the hardest to deal with for we carry those lemons alone.)
We say: “Why did God allow this?”/ “I don’t deserve this!”
We often blame God too much for life’s lemons from the lemon tree that man cultivated!
We Forget…GOD’S PLAN:
(if there is one thing to remember-let it be this)
God didn’t create a world of heartaches. Mankind brought that upon himself. God planned a perfect Garden, all needs met and fellowship with Him, but He gave us a choice… to know that we want Him. Man failed God; God didn’t fail man.
But…God in His sovereignty left Heaven to make a way to have forever fellowship with Him and to turn things for good to them that love God. Romans 8:28…The more good you want, the more God you need.
Everything we face is a consequence of man bringing sin upon all man and death by sin. Romans 5:12 (separation)
Our life situations we face are just that-Life! The circle of life, but we have a choice to let God change our circumstances of life for good.
Who was given Life’s Lemons? (So many examples in God’s Word)
One who faced the un- imaginable was Job. He had more than just a lemon he was given a whole orchard. In the end the Lord made not just a glass of Lemonade but a whole lemonade company!
Let’s look at the ingredients God used in Job’s Lemonade from his life!
Job’s Lemonade: Job 2:3 “Hast thou considered my servant Job…”
1 Relationship with Jesus Christ/ Spirit Filled- Job 1:5/Job 29: 3 & 4
-Job rose early every morning to commune with God! God’s presence was like a candle of light in darkness as a youth.
1 Whole heart of trust /Proverbs 3:3&6-Job 1:1
-Job feared God. When we fear someone or something it is because we have relinquished control to that one or thing.
- Job relinquished control to God.
-Job “eschewed evil” (Evil is that which distracts us and takes us away from the road to God but rather to the road of sin.)
-Job didn’t go after worldly things to solve his problems.
Double Dose of humble spirit- (Pride Free)-Job 2:10/ Job 6:24
-Job was teachable…Job said, “…to understand where I have erred…”
-Job was willing to take correction.
A Big Bunch of forgiveness- Job 1:22/Job 16:5
-Job not only forgave his negative friends, but also sought to encourage them. Forgiveness means to cease resentment. When we forgive it releases us from resentment. We may need to cease resentment toward God for the lemons we carry.
-Even on the cross Jesus prayed for those He forgave.
1 Obedient Servant-Job 1:8/Job 29:12-17
-Job was repeatedly called a servant. His actions showed his servant spirit to others.
-Job’s actions gave witness to his life.
*Just like we stir ingredients in a recipe, these ingredients may need stirred at different times in our life.
*The ingredients must be possessed daily in realization it may take a long time to see results. Job 23:10…maybe that gold is the gold color of lemonade!!!!
Notice these are the attributes of Jesus as He came to die for us. He was given lemons too.
Phil. 2:5-8
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation , and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
John 19:28 “ …I thirst” On the cross Jesus cried out…
Jesus literally went to Hell for us and took upon Himself our sin. He was given lemons! He was 100% man and 100% God. He felt every emotion and too asked God to remove the “cup” from Him; but, then in the garden, John 18:11 He accepts the cup that God gave Him.
Even better, the cup turned into living water to refresh us allowing us to refresh others.
Jesus, Himself, had all the ingredients-He too became obedient unto His Father.
What lemons do we carry? We can keep carrying them, and they will weigh us down; but, if we choose to put Job’s ingredients into our life, as the lemonade is made our load will lighten. The more lemonade
God makes with our lives and fills our cup, the more we too can refresh others.
Stir with Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I accept what life you have given me today. I many not like it, it hurts, and is painful, I yield and trust you, Jesus. I am undeserving of all the goodness you have already given me. I want and desire to obey you as you obeyed the Father. May I now take this cup and refresh another.