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Natasha Metzler

books and blog posts celebrating the goodness of the Father

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Living for Him

Bitter Sweet

Word-Snacks: bite-sized devotionals for your hungry momentsI don’t know how many times I’ve prayed for healing. Begged. Pleaded. God, if You see me, take these broken pieces and fix them. Please! 

One of the things I’ve never understood has been the way God allows things to fester over time. To build up pressure until I’m sure I cannot handle one more thing.

Except, maybe– maybe I do get it a little.

At least, this morning I did as I read through the story of the bitter waters at Marah.

There the Israelites have been in the desert. They had traveled for three days without water and they finally find a spring. 

Can you imagine the way the young boys must have run to the edges of the water? Thrust their faces into it? Then jerked back choking and coughing. Bitter water. Nothing to sate their deep thirst.

They grumbled. Just as I grumble when I taste bitterness. Especially after years in the desert. Three years without babies and I grumbled because the promise was right there in front of me– but when I grabbed onto it, bitterness embraced me. 

But, in those moments, when all I can taste is bitterness, can I remember? Who is this Lord whom I serve? Who is He?

He is Jehovah-Ropheka. The Lord who heals me. The One who takes my bitterness and makes it sweet. 

I look at my daughter every morning. She stumbles down the stairway in her pink flannel nightgown, black hair snarled around her face. If she sees me sitting with my devotions, she’ll come quiet and curl up on the couch beside me.

Years and years of bitterness– far more than the three which I thought would kill me– and finally, Jehovah-Ropheka has placed the wood in the water. Bitter becomes sweet.

And I know, again today, that He is good.

And I know that I need Him. I know it in a deeper way than I ever could have known it before. I cannot survive without the God who heals me.

WORD-SNACK: Exodus 15

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Comments

  1. Barbara Dillard says

    October 4, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    I am so enjoying your Word Snacks and think you are particularly gifted in these little snapshots full of such truth and tenderness. So glad I am subscribed!

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      October 5, 2014 at 9:12 pm

      Oh, yay! I’m so thankful. <3

      Reply
  2. Gail Snave says

    October 4, 2014 at 9:09 am

    Natasha, I am loving these devotions. Thank you so much for posting them. Gail

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      October 5, 2014 at 9:11 pm

      I am so glad they’re blessing you! <3

      Reply
  3. transcendenthomemaker says

    October 4, 2014 at 7:39 am

    I am so glad that I found these words this morning. Jehovah-Ropheka is our healer. He heals me after 12 years of not being able to have children and after the doctor had told me that, we have tried everything including the famous IVF now I have no chance of bearing children. 4 months after, my Healer came and Bitter became sweet. My princess is now 17 months and she already knows that Jesus Heals.

    Reply
    • Natasha Metzler says

      October 5, 2014 at 9:11 pm

      What a beautiful testimony! Praise God for His healing work in your life!

      Reply

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Hi, I’m Natasha

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