Lemons or Lemonade?

I vehemently dislike lemons, but I love lemonade. The irony is you cannot have one without the other. In life you learn the sweetest moments come as a result of the bitterest of times. The bitterness of childbirth is forgotten in the sweetness of the newborn cry. Sadly, many people never realize the sweetness of life because they are afraid to juice the lemon. As long as the juice is inside they are safe from the sourness. They go through life carrying the potential for something sweet because they only see the sour.

There are three keys to turning lemons into lemonade that we can find in Philippians 1:12-26.

Key One: Consider the Benefits (Phil. 1:12-18)

Every struggle has its benefits. You can’t make lemonade without squeezing the lemons. My father used to tell us, “Hard times build strong character.” The problem was I did not want to be a construction project. Thankfully Dad wisely knew how to help us understand that there are benefits in difficult times. Paul understood this. In verses 12-18 he rejoices that in his imprisonment the Gospel is being preached. Regardless of the motivation of others, God’s Kingdom is being advanced in the hearts and lives of people daily. Instead of looking inwardly he looked outwardly. He did not ask, “How does being in prison help me?” He saw how his incarceration was helping the church.

Key Two: Consider the Limitations (Phil. 1:20-21)

Every problem has it’s limitations. There is only so much juice you are going to get from a lemon. The secret to overcoming adversity is to outlast it. That is the hardest thing to do. We live in a “quick-fix” society. Sometimes there is no quick-fix to a problem other than seeing it through. This means we have to change our perspective. Remember the problem is not all-powerful, but our God IS omnipotent. Rather than looking at the problem alone, look at the process as well. Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to get through this?” You have two priceless advantages when God is on your side. One is the power of prayer and the other is the power of the Holy Spirit. When I pray and ask God to help, I allow the Holy Ghost permission to work in that situation. Sometimes it works on the problem, and other times it works on me. Letting the process work helps us bring the limitations of the problem, and my own limitations into perspective.

Key Three: Consider the Opportunities: (Phil. 1:23-25)

Every difficulty is an opportunity for God to work something great in your life. Someone else’s lemons allows us the chance to show them life can become sweeter. We all want God to work through us, but we forget He must work in/on us first. The opportunity for God to work through us to help someone else is almost always preceded by the squeezing of our own life in tough times. Paul had traveled the Roman Empire planting churches, but it wasn’t until the prison that his greatest work began to be accomplished. When you read Paul’s missionary travels, and the struggles he faced, in Acts it makes his Epistles more meaningful. In Acts he planted churches, in the Epistles he established churches. Any seasoned gardener understands you do not have a healthy garden just sticking seeds in the ground. The gardener must cultivate, or establish the plant. They do this by weeding, watering, fertilizing, and protecting the plant. Perhaps prison brought perspective to Paul’s ministry. Acts has ten chapters (13-21) that deal specifically with Paul’s evangelistic ministry. Chapters 21-28 of Acts cover his imprisonment. During that timeframe Paul wrote 13 Epistles directly ascribed to him, 14 if you include Hebrews. Paul goes from planting the church to prospering the church. He gives it the keys it needs to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;” (Titus 2:12). Paul used the bitterness of the prison as an opportunity to bring sweetness to the church. Never take God “slowing you down” as His disapproval. He may be having you make lemonade to sweeten someone’s world.

A problem is not punishment, but opportunity waiting to be discovered. It is hard to smell the roses if your zipping past. The prick of the throne does not diminish the sweetness of the beauty. Stopping to smell often leads us to the opportunity to remind others that the bitterness of the throne is overwhelmed by the beauty of the aroma. Let the bitterness of the lemons life has handed you become the sweet, refreshing blessing to someone today.