For the word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. Psalm 33:4 NASB
Pretend for a moment God is a baker and you are a future cookie. He doesn’t pull out His cookbook and follow His favorite recipe. No. He will create a recipe singular to you. He opens His recipe book, writes your name at the top and proceeds to write down the ingredients. He smiles. Satisfied it’s perfect, He pulls all the required ingredients out of the cupboard and fridge.
First He puts the sugar and the butter in a bowl and blends it well. Usually when I’m making cookies this is a good time to give it a little taste….yummy. But it still isn’t a cookie, God isn’t finished yet. Something we need to remember when we are in a big hurry for God to give us something is that God has all the ingredients and they will be added at the appropriate time. We need not worry about our future because God has it all in His care and in the wisdom of His timing will add what we need when it’s needed. Unlike the times I’ve decided to make cookies and discovered I do not have all the ingredients and have to change recipes, substitute an ingredient, or run to the store for what is missing, God always has everything needed to complete your life.
Next He cracks the eggs and adds them to the mix, stirring until they are completely incorporated into the sugar and butter. Then he adds the flour, and baking soda, and salt, and maybe some chocolate chips, or some cinnamon, raisins and oatmeal. Sometimes He may add some peanut butter or maybe a few walnuts or pecans. Most of us don’t like to be considered nutty, but the truth Jesus teaches can appear pretty nutty. The simplest of God’s teachings; “Love your neighbor as yourself,” can seem nutty when trying to put it into actual practice. Am I really supposed to smile and wave at the person who runs a red light and I need to hit my brakes so I don’t run into them? Truthfully the few times I’ve managed to do that sort of thing, I laugh because it is so incongruous and certainly feels a little crazy. Opportunities to love our neighbor as ourself are often precipitated by a painful battle of our pride against the humility of God. Only humility allows us to love others as we love ourselves while pride lustfully seeks to be the biggest, tastiest cookie at the party. Pride is a cookie that doesn’t seek to feed others, but wanders around the party like the big blue Cookie Monster seeking whom he may devour.
Bear in mind that some of the ingredients God has written into our recipe are not tasty on their own. In fact, some are not so very tasty at all and our first reaction is to spit them back out, but they are a necessary ingredient to the recipe. Or maybe you feel like God is trying to make you a plain old oatmeal raisin cookie when what you really wanted to be was the white chocolate chip macadamia cookie. Your recipe will not turn out as planned if you keep resisting the ingredients God needs to add to create you.
Коментари