Full of "It"

Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. (James 3:11-12, NKJV)

I have a theory. We are all buckets. Some people have bucket lists; however, I'm writing more along the lines of, we can only hold...or be full of...any given thing at one time. Some will argue that no one is all good or all bad. We will save that for another post for time sake. 

For example, before Jesus, my bucket was full of bitterness, unforgiveness, and strife. If I didn't have enough strife in my life...I took strife from family and/or friends. I thought I was so noble to always be fighting for a cause...whether that be my cause or someone else's cause. In every conversation, I'd listen intently to the person speaking, then I'd side one way or another and be ready for a fight. I had a lot of "friends" in those days. Mostly because I was surrounded by people who "ran things off in the ditch" then refused to clean up their own mess. At that time, that was ok with me because, after all, I thrived on my current "cause". I was on a fast road straight to hell, living a life of hell, and thought I had everything and everybody all figured out. That's self deceit with a side of self deceit. I wasn't a "bad person", after all, I was most likely fighting for someone or something...based on my opinion of right and wrong. Living like that resulted in being chronically ill with headaches, sleeping problems and infections: upper respiratory, ear, sinus and kidney infections. And all the while, wondering why my life wasn't going well.  *Big Doofuss Alert*

After accepting Jesus, and developing a relationship with Him, it seemed like every time I turned around, I was seeing what a huge doofuss I had been. As I learned to depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psalms 34:14, NLT), my "bucket" began being emptied of bitterness, unforgiveness, and strife. As He taught me to speak His Word and literally use it to change my life, not only did I become well in my mind and emotions but my body also began to thrive. That made room for love, forgiveness, and peace resulting in life in excessive abundance! Praise God, as I yielded (and continue to yield) to His Word, He was (and continues to be) faithful to dump out funk and replace it with life! 

One of my favorite sayings by Joyce Meyer is, "I'm not where I need to be, but thank God I left." I thank God for teaching me to operate according to His law of love so I no longer have to be full of "it".