A young man was making a case for masking up in school but his peers and some parents heckled him. He ended up on CNN as a result and when the reporter asked for a message to his hecklers, his response was genius. He would tell them they had catapulted him into the national limelight by their hatred. Bravo is what I say to the young man because he would know how to make spiritual lemonade.
His case reminded me of another account in the bible. A woman came to Jesus for the healing of her daughter. Actually, it was to be a deliverance service because her daughter was demon-possessed. Now, if you are familiar with the story, you will think of Jesus as being hard-hearted. At first, He answered her not a word.
Imagine! You come to Jesus for help and all He can do is to ignore you. It is at that stage that fifty percent of us would storm off in a huff. “Who does He think He is? Deliverance Minsters are all over the place.” We would conveniently forget that those ‘deliverance minsters’ have been unable to help in all the years we have been attending church. We would go away, still with our problem.
Not this woman. She stayed and took the insult of being ignored. Even when the disciples asked Jesus to add injury to the insult and send her away, she stayed. And then, Jesus spoke. A greater insult. “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Yikes! That was a spiritual lemon right there and not many of us would remain after that.
Life Is Expert At Handing You Lemons
This is the point at which we explain the title of this post. Especially for those who are not familiar with the common saying. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It is a proverbial saying to encourage optimism. With that attitude, you can turn a bad situation into a very pleasant one, even an enviable scenario. And this woman had that attitude in abundance. She was planning on how to make spiritual lemonade from the lemon that Jesus just handed her.
Lemons are sour to the taste, unpleasant, and usually unwelcome. On the other hand, who does not like the taste of lemonade? Many times, we ask for a refill. But going from lemon to lemonade, going from insult to victory is not easy for most believers. And that is because we have the wrong attitude; we become angry too easily.
This woman? She made up her mind not to be offended. Which was great because more insult was on its way to her. After she worshipped, she asked for help one more time and instead of becoming better, her situation worsened. Jesus declared the coup de grâce, the death blow. He told her “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
Double ouch! This time, the lemon was unripe and hence very sharp to the teeth, setting the teeth on edge. We will not take the time now to examine why Jesus appeared so unkind to this woman. I don’t mind confessing that I would have left at that stage. But that was before I received revelation about this woman. She had faith! That was why she stayed. I wonder how many of us have that kind of rock-solid faith.
How To Make Spiritual Lemonade From Your Lemon
She simply took the unripe lemon and decided to show those unkind disciples how to make spiritual lemonade. From all this bitterness, she was going to extract sweetness. Her response is a lesson in itself as she started by agreeing with Jesus. “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
When life hands you a problem, what do you do? If your landlord evicts you, do you curse him or start making plans to buy land? Do you align with God or do you start on a rant? Can you thank God for the bitter issue which is confronting you right now? The boss who throws you out of your job may be teaching you how to make spiritual lemonade. Because, many times, it is in worshiping God that the answer comes. This woman worshipped Jesus, agreed with Him, recognized Him as the Yes and Amen.
Keep in mind, she did not know how the day would end, she was just acknowledging Jesus. She was walking by faith and not by sight. What do you and I do in such a situation? Our hearts are bleeding and we confess we find it hard to worship. “Let God move first and when the problem is solved, we will worship. Now is the time for tears and grumbling,” is what our attitude portrays. The bible says that is walking by sight.
Faith Is How To Make Spiritual Lemonade
You see, many of what we refer to as prayers are simply grumblings or as someone said, badgering God. If the children of Israel had appreciated that manna was a type of Jesus, they would not have grumbled. If you know what happened to the grumblers in the wilderness, you will change the tone of your prayers. They all perished and failed to reach the Promised Land.
Trust me, you will start to learn how to make spiritual lemonade, just like this woman. You will worship through your tears. That is what the bible calls sacrifice of praise – praise and worship that has tears and blood on it. However, most of us want Him to change His mind, by fire by force. Ha! He is God, not our houseboy. Until He takes the lemon away and replaces it with lemonade, we will not give Him rest.
However, our prayers should be more like that of this woman. Yes, Lord! But we say “No, Lord, change so and so, and while you are there, kill so and so. Let them fall down and die.” By worshiping, this woman demonstrated how to make spiritual lemonade from life’s lemons. She demonstrated her great faith.
Remember, you cannot escape getting lemons in life from time to time. Nobody can escape lemons; not the richest, not the most educated, not kings or presidents. But what matters is your attitude to your problem. Perhaps that is why they say your attitude determines your altitude.
How To Make Spiritual Lemonade Is The Fruit Of The Spirit
In her case (and I hope in yours and mine) her faith gave her wisdom, humility and patience, and all the other components of the fruit of the Spirit. One bible commentator opines that of all things, faith honors God most. I guess that is why without faith, it is impossible to please God. In turn, Jesus also honors faith the most.
That is why He identified the great faith in this woman He says to this woman and to us if we can have the patience to learn how to make spiritual lemonade. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” At that very instance, her daughter received the sought-after healing and her own problem was solved. Her lemon became lemonade. May we have the required faith to turn our lemons into lemonade, in Jesus’ name
Maranatha!
