Craig T. Owens

Do you like cookies? I do! In fact one of the main reasons I workout is so I can eat more of the sweet treats my wife makes.

I’d like you to consider some of the ingredients in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe:

• Butter
• Chocolate chips
• White flour
• Wheat flour
• Oatmeal
• Sugar
• Brown sugar
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Vanilla

On their own, some of these ingredients are sweet, some are rather bitter, and some don’t have much flavor at all. Now keep this list of ingredients in mind as you read this:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Really, “all things”?!?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some pretty bitter things happen in my life. But the Bible says that God is using all things—the sweet, the bitter, and the bland—to make something good.

I’d never eat a big spoonful of baking powder or salt or vanilla extract as a treat, but my favorite chocolate chip cookie would be terribly lacking without those key ingredients.

You may not like the bitter things in your past, but God is using even those—part of the all things—to make something good out of your life.

So the next time you are questioning how the bitter fits into your life, ask the Holy Spirit to show you. And while you’re waiting on the answer, have a cookie and think about the bitter and sweet ingredients that went into making something so good.