Sweeten My Heart

Sweeten My Heart Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” so he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Exodus 15:23-25 My eyes scanned the list of prayer requests. So many people with a myriad needs in their lives; devastating illnesses, the loss of loved ones, financial crises, families torn apart. It made my heart sigh.. “Lord, help them,” I whispered. Then my eyes fell on another prayer request. This one was even more tragic. The request was for a man who was dying with a bitter heart apart from God. I felt incredibly sad. I was reminded of the above story in the book of Exodus. After wandering in the wilderness for three days, the Israelites became thirsty. But unfortunately the waters of Marah were bitter. They were polluted and undrinkable. Dry and parched, the Israelites complained to Moses. Peculiarly, God showed Moses a tree. The scripture tells us that Moses threw the tree into the waters. Miraculously, the waters became sweet, and Israelites were able to drink and be refreshed. The tree Moses tossed into the waters, represents the wooden cross of Christ. With Jesus Christ in the middle of any situation, no matter how bitter, He offers us pure water, even “living water.” (John 4:10) He does this with His mercy, with the promise of His Word, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit who “comforts us in all of our tribulations.” 2 Cor. 1:4 What possible evil occurred in this man’s life that could have made him ostracize God so, even in his dying days? I don’t know what his life experiences were, but I do know that life can be cruelly unfair, and unthinkable tragedy can occur in many lives. Like the Israelites in Exodus, we thirst for something to fill up the hurt and the emptiness . We look for explanations, and when we don’t find them, we can drink from dirtied waters. Perhaps that was what happened to the man dying with a bitter heart. Maybe the difficulties in his life went unresolved and unforgiven. The Bible also says that as Christians we can let a “root of bitterness” spring up in our hearts as well. I think that can occur because of instances when God didn’t do things the way we thought He should. We can begin to think that God somehow betrayed us. Those thoughts and feelings can poison our souls. They choke off our relationship with Him, unless they are immediately brought before God. We need to reject bitterness and instead learn to let go and trust Him at all cost. Dying in bitterness, apart from God. I can think of nothing more hopeless. When I die, I want to turn my eyes to the expectant hope of seeing Jesus’ face. When I leave this place, I want there to be joy somewhere deep in my soul, and difficult as this life is, I don’t want to drink from dirty water because I don’t understand the hard questions. Nothing is worth that. I have since thought about the prayer request for that man. I pray he had an encounter with God, one that sweetened his heart.