Better and not Bitter

How many times have you sipped a beverage or swallowed medicine and found them to be bitter to taste?  Sugar sometimes helps to sweeten a drink, or a peppermint lifesaver can cover up the aftertaste of bad tasting medicine.  These steps can make them better and not bitter.  Of course, better is always more favorable than bitter, as I see it.

The lyrics of the following song said it very well when Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews in the 1964 film) sang it.  “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Coffee, tea, and lemonade are prime examples of drinks that are enjoyed with sweeteners.  As for me, I drink them without.  I don’t know if it’s because my wife tells me that I’m just too sweet for words, or that she’s trying to build my ego. 

I’m teasing, she is expressing love.  In any case, I try to stay away from sugar of any kind and sodas with artificial sweeteners.

People use the following words to express affection: Sweetheart, Sweetie, Sweet-pea, Honey, and Sugar when addressing loved ones.  These words are not used in bitter conversations, because they are meant to relay compassion and love.  They help to magnify better communication, not a bitter one.

When I was a non-Christian, my relationship with God was bitter, not on His part, but mine alone.  After accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, my relationship became and is becoming much better as I learn to put off the old nature and slip on my garment of praise in the new nature that God gave me when I became His child.

This change from a bitter heart to a better one is because Jesus gave His life, freely, on a cross for our sins.  He put a heart of compassion within me and took away the heart of stone when I became a born-again Believer.  It all happened when God forgave my sins.

(Psalm 51:10), “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Life is full of ups and downs with many challenges.  Not everything that comes our way is sweet like honey; they can be bitter like medicine.  Medicines certainly have positive influences on the body, so we take them for the good they do—better health.

We can obtain and be joyful, while experiencing victory over bitterness, because of God’s strength within us.  He brings maturity and health to our spiritual growth and life to a mundane lifestyle.

Uplifting songs can inspire spiritual health and help dispel bitter feelings in one’s heart when they listen to the lyrics or sing them, like the old song, “Jesus is the sweetest name I know.”  The power of His sweet name changes things for the better and sets people free from bitterness.

When I was walking in carnal flesh, without the Spirit of God within me, I was bitter because there was no joy inside me.  I was searching for a better way to live but was running in the opposite direction from God.  I finally realized that He, and He alone, could satisfy the longing in my soul and make things better and not bitter.

When I surrendered to the wooing of the Holy Spirit, I was able to find the sweetness of God’s love in Jesus Christ.  He dispelled my bitter attitude.  The wonderful thing is this, I didn’t have to be perfect to find God’s love. 

God’s word declares that we can come to Him as we are, with all our hang-ups, questions, and sin, and the Lord will set us free.  God was waiting patiently for me to decide that He was the only way to possess a better life rather than a life of bitter regrets.

I was thinking how a single letter in a word can change the total meaning of that word.  Take the letters “i” and “e” for example.  The word ‘better’ is spelled with an “e”, whereas ‘bitter’ is spelled with an “i”.  One letter makes a difference as to the meaning.

The letter “o” in ‘Son’, and the “i” in ‘sin’ conveys different meanings.  The perfection of God’s Son vs. Satan’s sin is the defining difference between a better life in Jesus rather than a bitter life with Satan.  I’m glad that God threw bitterness to the wind and replaced it with His Son, Jesus.

If you are searching for meaning to life and a better way to live, I give you Jesus.  He is the Prince of Peace.  He provides lasting peace that passes all understanding.  He is the answer to all your quandaries.  Through Him, heaven is our hope for eternity.

(John 3:16-17), “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (vs 17) “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

www.wordsfrompapa.blogspot.com 

Written by,

Papa Boyd