The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Bitter and Sweet (05/28/09)
Salvation’s Opposing Sensations

While our walk with the Lord is always going to bring us abundant life, sometimes it’s not exactly the abundance we were hoping for or had planned on. In one sense, the condition of being on fire for Jesus is the sweetest sensation a person could possibly know. On the other hand, because Satan hates all that is good, once that he sees a life transformed by faith in Christ, he will never cease in attempting to make it taste as bitter as a Chinese pine nut.
I have witnessed this contrast in sensations personally. When I was eighteen, I was emotionally lost. I suffered from a strange psychological illness which eventually brought me to the end of the rope of torment. I tried to end my life by carbon monoxide poisoning, and the resulting brain damage created a profoundly altered physical condition. My physical functioning gradually improved over the course of the next eight years. I finally found salvation as a twenty-six-year-old, and from that time forward I have been in a nearly constant state of disintegration and dissipation. It has indeed been, in part, a bitter thirteen years.
Although life has been a troublesome journey since I was eighteen, God has also added an improbable sweet pot of honey to it. He gave me soundness of mind, and left me with intelligence enough to graduate from college. I have found true love in spite of myself, and I married that true love. I have also become a father, and my daughter loves me as if I have no flaws. As bitter as he has allowed life to become, in my darkest hour, I could never have imagined the blessings which he was to bestow upon me.
At times our glorious journey seems to be an endless series of trials and temptations. As we grow stronger in Him, often these tests feel as if they become more and more demanding. We should always try to look at it through His divine eyes, however perplexing this may become. If the Lord is testing us we should look at it as an honor, for He alone knows what He has put inside of us. As in the story of Job, He allowed Satan to torture the man of faith, because He knew the strength with which He had fashioned him. Job said, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” Job 2:10.
In his infinite wisdom, God will always know the amount of resistance we need. If an athlete’s training is never intensified, how will his performance improve? If one never experiences the darkness of night, how can that person appreciate the brilliance of the day? If we are never given anything bitter to eat, how will we truly know what sweet is?
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 1147 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Aletha Ng
06/05/09
This is an amazing testimony. I pray that you are able to share this with todays generation. I see satan attacking their minds. I often hear them talk of death as a way of escape from their torment. With a teastimony like this, you could bring hope to their life.
God bless.
Sara Harricharan
06/08/09
Powerful writing. This reads with some rough patches, but the message still comes through. What a story to have to share! Thanks for sharing it!
diana kay
06/10/09
good stuff. A chinese pine nut? interesting I want to look at one of these! sniff it maybe but defo not risk a taste. The testimony is powerful.