Do you like lemons? Lemons have a certain twang to them. We use them to make desserts and citrus drinks. Some people even like adding lemons to their iced tea. My mother-in-law served lemonade with a lot of her meals.  To me lemons mostly just taste sour but I do like the four-layer-lemon dessert that I make, or a good lemon pie. Yum!

The strength and the fragrance of lemons are even added to cleaning products.  On another note we sometimes use the word “lemon” to describe an automobile that has lots of defective problems and always has something going wrong with it. Many of us have heard the saying, “if dealt lemons, make lemonade”, concerning life’s situations. This is talking about how we view and handle life when things get rough. In other words try to make something good come from every situation. Turn the sour or the unsatisfactory situation into something sweet by changing your attitude and doing something positive to correct the problem.  Instead of complaining so much about the circumstances, pray about them and allow God to work things out for good.

Sometimes I think we are a lot like lemons; we have sour dispositions from time to time. Technically speaking – we are born that way – better known as that sinful nature caused by the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. But when we accept Jesus as Savior, God changes us from those sour, angry, envy, unkind, hatred, jealous (and the list goes on), attitudes. He changes us from the inside out. He works with us changing our heart to produce a “sweeter temperament” that glorifies Him.

Now a lemon is a lemon and will always be a lemon; but we have the option to NOT always be the way we are. When we are born again – receiving the Salvation that Jesus purchased for us – we receive a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we renew our mind to the Word of God (Romans 12:2), God then works in our heart to peel off the jealousy, envy, hatred, strife, harsh words (and again the list goes on), and transforms us into His Image. Just like the cleaning companies add lemon to help strip away dirt from surfaces we clean in our homes, the Blood of Jesus cleans away the sin nature in our heart when we accept Him as Savior; giving us His nature. Then the Gracious Holy Spirit is added to us to help us live righteously before God.

Romans 8:28 tells us that all things can work out for our good. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”.  Every person is called to God’s purpose; He wishes that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9).  So the pre-requisite for having things work out for our good is to belong to Jesus. The next thing we need to do is to live our lives to honor and glorify God (Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:12).

As we change on the inside we become a heavenly glow of His Loving Presence that others can see and are then drawn to Him; glory be to God. Someday God will “peel” off this corruptible shell we call a body and give us a new incorruptible, glorious body that will never again decay or get sick. Hallelujah!

My prayer this week for us is that we will allow God to peel off some old habits and attitudes and thereby changing us more and more into His Image. Have a great week.