What Do You Do When Life Gives You Lemons

There is an old saying that goes like this, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Cute saying. I contend however that it's not Biblical. I know what you thinking; lighten up Mike, it's just a saying and it makes sense.

But hear me out. If all life gives you is lemons; you cannot make lemonade, you can only make lemon juice. And lemon juice is not all that good tasting. It’s sort of bitter and caustic. To make lemonade, you must have sugar. So, if all life gives you is lemons; you have a problem.

The person that wrote that statement was suggesting we can control our environment. We can take control of our own lives and even during the hardest times, we can still find pleasure in life. That’s what is wrong in our world. Without letting God in and without faith and hope in Christ, life tastes like lemon juice. So, we just keep looking for that right ingredient to make it sweet. We turn to drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, or whatever. Some people bounce from one thing to the next. Often we bounce from one relationship to another. If you take lemons and add cinnamon to it, you won’t have lemonade. If you add salt to lemon juice or you add pepper, or whatever, you still won’t get what you are looking for. You need sugar.

This is where faith in God really shows its value. God doesn’t need sugar to make lemonade. He doesn’t even need lemons. Listen to the story of the first miracle Jesus performed while on this earth as a man.

John 2:1-11
 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Jesus made wine from water. If you know anything about wine making you know that the process certainly requires more than just water. Not only does it require other ingredients, it requires time for fermentation. But when we turn to Christ to have our thirst quenched we get more than just water. We get the best wine available. And we get it in His time.

This life is tough. Even for Christians difficult circumstances arise. Things seem impossible and they don’t often make sense to us. Our lives will involve desert times. Dry periods of life that find us feeling as if we are dying of thirst. Sometime all we have in front of us are those proverbial lemons. And no matter how hard we try, we cannot make anything good out of those lemons. But if we walk by faith and wait on Jesus, we can know that He will make us lemonade.

This morning many of us in the body of Christ are struggling. Things are occurring around us that seem hopeless. They are not. The Bible says nothing is too hard for God and it says with Him, all things are possible. Hear this truth from Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

All things. Somehow God is working this mess out for good, even if we cannot see it at the moment.

So, this morning, if all you have in front of you is a bunch of sour lemons, don’t try and make lemonade out of them. Do what the little boy did with the five loaves and the two fish. Give them to Jesus. He will provide you with all you need.

It’s called faith and you going to need it. So, put your faith in the resurrected savior. Put your faith in Jesus. Your thirst will be quenched and it will be more than you could ever imagine.

 There is an old saying that goes like this, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Cute saying. I contend however that it's not Biblical. I know what you thinking; lighten up Mike, it's just a saying and it makes sense.

But hear me out. If all life gives you is lemons; you cannot make lemonade, you can only make lemon juice. And lemon juice is not all that good tasting. It’s sort of bitter and caustic. To make lemonade, you must have sugar. So, if all life gives you is lemons; you have a problem.

The person that wrote that statement was suggesting we can control our environment. We can take control of our own lives and even during the hardest times, we can still find pleasure in life. That’s what is wrong in our world. Without letting God in and without faith and hope in Christ, life tastes like lemon juice. So, we just keep looking for that right ingredient to make it sweet. We turn to drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, or whatever. Some people bounce from one thing to the next. Often we bounce from one relationship to another. If you take lemons and add cinnamon to it, you won’t have lemonade. If you add salt to lemon juice or you add pepper, or whatever, you still won’t get what you are looking for. You need sugar.

This is where faith in God really shows its value. God doesn’t need sugar to make lemonade. He doesn’t even need lemons. Listen to the story of the first miracle Jesus performed while on this earth as a man.