Recipe of the Day

Yesterday I needed a recipe so I went to a website "AllRecipes.com". In reading the Bible today, it did NOT direct me to a recipe website, however it did give me a recipe for being a productive and effective servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at this recipe, and how and if we have the ingredients on hand.

Scripture

2Peter 1:3-9

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Observation

God has given me EVERYTHING I need for life and godliness.

Application

What if I don't feel like I have everything, because life seems hard and I feel a long way from being godly? I need to preach to myself because it doesn't matter what I feel......it matters what the Bible tells me about myself. So the Bible tells me that God's divine power has given me everything I need to for life. The scripture goes onto say that God has given me these promises and through MY PARTICIPATION in them I will escape the corruption of the world. So what do I have to do? I've been given these promises. I now have to take them and embrace them and actual use them in my life. If I treat them like shirt someone gives me, and I hang it in the closet, it does me no good. It was given to me, but I have made it useless because I have not put to use the gift I was given.

So what is the recipe I need. The Bible says that EVERY EFFORT should be made to take the faith I have been given and add a CUP of goodness. To goodness add a CUP of knowledge. Once that is mixed up a bit put in a CUP each of(maybe two CUPS) self control and perseverance. Thoroughly mix scraping the sides then add a CUP of godliness. Let that stand for 30 minutes, then finally add brotherly kindness and the final ingredient which must cover the entire batch and then be mixed completely throughout is Love. That's it. A wonderful recipe for me to put together to be effective for our Lord. I can't leave Love on the spice rack and try to substitute it with something else, because the Bible says I am blind and have forgotten how my sin was forgiven.

Do I fail in making this recipe? Yes. But do I make the effort to have these promises and ingredients displayed in my life? Yes. I think the lesson for me is that I need to take inventory of my spice rack and see what I am using; are they the spice promises God has given me or are they spices I bought for myself at the Farmers Market?

Prayer

Father, you have given me everything I need for life without me even asking for them; you know what I need. Thank You. I ask that you go through my spice rack to take inventory to make sure I have your promises in the inventory, not useless Warren spices. Amen.