The
Sweet or Sour Test
As my
husband and I visited the local berry fields the other day it brought memories
of making jams and jellies with my grandmother and mother.
Canning and preparing the jars of raspberry, strawberry and grape jellies took
hours of work in our very hot kitchen.
When as a young girl I would whimper at the end of
the day and say how tired I was next I would
hear grandma say in her Norwegian accent, “Ya sure, but dis is a sweet tired
you have, not the kind from sour thinking.”
“Do you now
know? Have you not heard? The LORD
is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow
tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to
the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and
weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.”
Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV
We have a choice of where our weariness comes
from. Is it from hard work, or from negative thinking? It’s not a matter of
weary muscles and bones but a matter of the heart and a battle in our minds.
It’s not by
our own strength, but by perseverance to stay the course with our eyes on Jesus
that we are strengthened by God alone in our moments of our greatest
weariness.
God anticipates our tiredness and like food and
water that we need every day He is faithful to bring us a fresh helping of new
strength. But there are times we may need to take the sweet and sour test. Are
we tired from sweet hard work or from some sour thinking?
In my own life I have suffered bouts of exhaustion
from letting my mind stray to what grandma called sour
thoughts. But all praise to God, when I give myself the tired test of sweet or
sour, the sour ones do not dominate me when I lay them down and trust them
“The Sweet
or Sour Test” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© July 14, 2014
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