When Faith Doesn’t Taste Sweet
If we’re honest, most of us prefer the sweeter parts of faith.
We love the songs that lift us. The prayers that comfort us. The testimonies that end in neat redemption stories. We are quick to reach for the bread and honey.
But Scripture reminds us there was also something else on the table.
In Exodus 12:8, when God instructed His people on how to remember their deliverance, He told them to eat the Passover meal with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The bitterness wasn’t an accident. It was intentional. The herbs were there to help them remember slavery — the ache, the oppression, the years that felt endless.
The people of God were not invited to forget the hard parts.
They were invited to taste them — and remember who brought them through.
We Don’t Like Bitter
Bitter herbs sting your tongue. They wake up your senses. They refuse to be ignored.
In our own lives, bitterness can look like grief that lingers longer than we expected. Disappointment that didn’t resolve the way we prayed it would. A season that feels more like wilderness than promise.
We would rather skip these courses.
But Lent is not a season that rushes past the bitter. It gently places it before us and asks: What is this teaching you? What is this revealing? Where was God even here?
The Gift Hidden in the Bitter
The bitter herbs in the Passover meal were never the final taste. They were eaten alongside the lamb — a reminder that suffering and salvation were intertwined.
We see that even more clearly when we look toward the cross. Jesus did not avoid the bitter cup. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed about it. He felt its weight. And still, He surrendered to the Father’s will.
The bitterness was not the end of the story.
It was the pathway to resurrection.
In our own lives, the bitter places often become the spaces where our faith deepens most. Where our prayers become less polished and more honest. Where we discover that God is not only present in joy — but fiercely faithful in sorrow.
What Are You Doing With the Bitter?
Our sermon series has been asking what we are feeding our souls. This week, perhaps the better question is: Are you willing to taste what is hard?
Not to wallow.
Not to stay stuck.
But to remember.
To remember that God met you there.
To remember that you survived.
To remember that bitterness does not cancel God’s goodness.
Sometimes the very thing we wish away becomes the evidence of His sustaining grace.
A Prayer for the Week
Lord,
Give us courage to name the bitter places.
Teach us not to numb them or rush past them.
Help us to see where You were present all along.
And remind us that even here, You are preparing resurrection.
Amen.