Have you heard that saying
"That is a bitter pill to swallow."?
Meaning circumstances we can't change, difficulties we have to deal with...are distasteful, "hard to swallow".
The thought came to mind as I was taking my vitamins/supplements.
There are many kinds of pills out there, hard tablets, gel caps, capsules. Each with a different covering holding what is helpful, and usually necessary, inside.
We all have "bitter pills" in life...but our faith in Christ can make a difference in what happens with those "pills"....it can make a difference in the "coating on the pill".
If we allow that pill to stay as hard as it was when we had to swallow it.....a hard tablet we can't break or crush...it just remains hard and bitter.
📖 Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many. Hebrews 12:15 (HCSB)
But if we allow Christ's grace and peace to wash over it...it will be softer, easier to break open and mercy, love, forgiveness can ooze out.
I know it sounds over simplified, even silly, but think about it;
If we allow all the wrongs, tragedies and unfairness in our life to remain heavy, hardened with-in us ...they damage us, instead of letting God use them to grow our faith and draw us closer to Him..
📖 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7
...instead of letting God's gracious forgiveness crush that pill into powder that is washed away by His blood.
There can not be even a little part....like the tiny part when we say; "they hurt me, I have a right to be angry", "this was not fair I am justified in my reactive behavior"..."I am the victim here!"
But you see, that little speck becomes a collector...almost a magnet, for the littlest slights, misunderstandings, and other hurts and wrongs, so that little spec grows into another large hardened, bitter tablet.
📖 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31
ALL bitterness....not "get rid of bitterness"...or even "try to..." it says GET RID OF ALL.
A quote from Christy by Catherine Marshall page 409.
Part of a funeral message given by Miss Alice;
“Second, we can have His friendship only if we are willing to let go our resentments and our bitterness and our hating and our feuding and our name-calling and our shooting and love one another. Tom McHone will not have died in vain, if finally we can drop the quarrels based on false pride, the petty differences that bring us sorrow and are not worthy of our Master."
What I also notice is that bitterness is listed first, so I believe letting bitterness hang out produces rage, anger, brawling, slander, and every form of malice. If we were to actually get rid of ALL bitterness....rage, anger, brawling, etc would all be gone as well! When we don't let bitterness hang on...the rest just won't be!
📖 Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? James 3:10-12 (HCSB)
We can't crush that bitter pill on our own...we need to surrender our bitter pills to Him and He will crush them...so His mercy and grace and forgiveness is all that remains.
📖 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)
Why do we have to swallow that pill in the first place?...as I have blogged before;
Jesus says you WILL have trouble...you WILL have some bitter pills, but take heart..."I am the Great Pill Crusher!" (My paraphrase)
📖 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Here is a song I just heard a few days ago...it speaks to what I am trying to say; that in our trials we draw closer to Him...grow in Him...without those bitter pills we might never get there.
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