Recipes Of Faith

I can't tell you how many times I have bought fresh vegetables only to have them go bad in my refrigerator. I have two lemons on my counter right now that if a don't use soon I will have to throw them in the trash.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:33 ESV

This verse is given in the context of worry and supply but this morning I think about abundance and use.

Opportunity is like that lettuce waiting to be used. If I don't plan a recipe that uses lettuce then it may just end up in the trash. I could make a salad or a sandwich. There are a dozen ways that the lettuce could be used and a dozen way that it will remain unused.

"For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." - 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 ESV

A tree takes a lifetime to grow. Hay comes up in a season and stubble is what is left over from a harvest.

There are a dozen recipes that include Jesus today. There are also a dozen that don't include Him. Gold is His character of royalty and divinity. Silver is his purity. It is what remains when silver ore is heated and the dross rises to the top and gets skimmed off. Precious stones are individuals born in fire and carved out as friends.

"'They shall be Mine,' says the LORD of hosts, 'On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.' " - Malachi 3:17 NKJV

"...among whom you shine as lights in the world," - Philippians 2:15b ESV

My faith is in my cupboard but will I use it this week. Mercy is new this morning. It is like manna that has come down from Heaven.

"When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, 'It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.'... Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted." - Exodus 16:15-16, 21 ESV

The manna came with the dew. It didn't float down like snow. It formed like dew forms on leaves from the mist of morning.

Just as some of us rarely see the dew in the morning some rarely see God's mercy because they aren't up early enough to gather it.

I'm not going to strive but I do have some recipes planned for the ingredients I have been given. Not everything can go in the freezer after all.

--