“And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!””
–Nehemiah 8:10 (NLT)
Do you like to cook? I enjoy cooking, but there’s only one problem. While my wife is kind and eats what I fix, it is apparent that she doesn’t see my true potential. If that sounds arrogant, please let me hasten to explain.
You see, I tend to cook without using any recipes. I enjoy living a bit dangerously, and tasting things as I go along. Unfortunately, I’m usually the only one who recognizes my innate creativity, and that is sometimes hard.
I don’t understand this, for I try to serve only the finest in cuisine. Examples of my gourmet cooking in the past include hot dog helper, partially cooked frozen dinners, and canned beans a la Tim. Despite my amazing cooking talent, it sometimes gets really quiet at Stephanie’s end of the table when we sit down for dinner.
Facing this silence at the table led to further reflection. Reluctantly, I admitted to some disasters in the kitchen. After doing some soul-searching, I decided to try the recipe thing. This admission was extra hard for me, because I have voiced strong moral opposition to instruction in the past, and I used to fall asleep watching the cooking channel.
But to my amazement, I found a few benefits to following this new way of life. They included a decrease in hot dog helper dinners, some fully cooked frozen dinners, and hot beans and meat in a dish a la Tim.
Now that I had these results in front of me, however, my mind has started turning to my spiritual diet. I wondered what God thought about the devotional food choices I made. Although I mentally shook myself in disgust, the thought wouldn’t leave me alone. I wondered if my little diet really mattered in the cosmic scheme of things. While I knew that God wouldn’t send me an email with instructions telling me how to live my life, I also knew that life is complicated.
While searching the scriptures in frustration, I decided to look for something–anything–that might help me out. To my surprise, I found a lot of enlightening information, and things really began to cook.
Having said that, I would like to share my favorite recipe with you, but there is one important note: This is a single-serving recipe.
Joy Jubilee
While the oven of life is pre-heating, get out a large mixing bowl, a measuring cup, and a Bible.
At room temperature, put 1 cup prayer and one cup praise into your bowl. Add two cups of water of the Word.
Mix ingredients slowly in bowl. Pour into the blender of life, and after five minutes of thorough mixing, pour back in bowl.
Place the mixture in the pressure cooker of life. As pressure builds, mix frequently until desired consistency is reached.
Now take the bread of life from the refrigerator of indifference, and spread throughout your day.
While the problems of life can be hard to face, too many of us try to deal with life alone. Even if we know that God is there intelectually, we tend to forget His presence when the going gets tough. We often face dilemmas in our own strength by acting as though we were alone, and disregarding the spiritual recipes offered in the Bible.
Jesus spoke about one of these recipes when He told us how His children could enjoy an abundant life. Christ declared that life would be full of trouble, because we live in a fallen world. Luckily, He also said that He would walk beside us, guiding us through our time on Earth. The knowledge of His presence brings real joy like nothing else can or will offer in this life.
These two ideas may seem contradictory at first, but let me assure you they are not. While God’s joy may not isolate you from the problems around you, it can fill you with the comforting insulation of love and peace. Reacting to problems in a constructive way offers a higher probability of both dealing with them, and solving them.
So when you’re at the end of your rope and you think you can’t handle any more troubles, yield to God. He really does have a plan for you in the midst of what looks like disaster, and you will find out more about it by reading His divine recipe book. Even if you like to cook without using recipes in the kitchen, you can know with certainty that God hasn’t left you without any recipes for life.
Thank you for reading this, and may the Lord give you a wonderful week! We are trying to reach people who are hurting, so if God lays it on your heart, please consider becoming a partner with us. If you would like to make a donation, please visit www.hcmachaplains.org and click on the Donate Now link. You can also send donations by mail to HCMA (Healthcare Chaplains Ministry Association). Our ID number is 560. The address is 101 S Kraemer BLVD, Suite 123A, Placentia, CA 92870. Finally, you’re always welcome to join our Monday night Bible study or Tuesday night prayer meeting. Both are conducted by conference call, and they take place at 5:30 PM Arizona time. Our conference number is 712-775-7031, and our ID is 607518748. We hope to talk with you soon!
If you have questions, comments or prayer requests for Timothy or Stephanie Burdick, please call 507-369-6861.
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