Corona Devo 905

Today I made a batch of stuffed peppers.  It's been a while, but it's funny how the process of a recipe from childhood sort-of "comes back to you" as you move through it.  

I cleaned my green peppers, browned the ground meat and cooked up some rice.  After churning the beef and rice together with some spices and spaghetti sauce, I had a tasty stuffing for the peppers.  I blanched them in a pot of boiling water, fished them (and their tops) out and proceeded to fill the peppers up with their "stuffing".

But (Geez!), I had misjudged my amount of rice/beef stuffing, and my peppers were full, but I had a bunch of leftover stuffing.  Now what will I do with that?  And where did I go wrong in my measurements?

Just as my mind began to brainstorm other uses for my "extra rice mixture"...my eyes swept over the counter and there--tucked in next to the bananas was one more group of green peppers.  Were those there before?  Of course they were...but my counter was a mess and I couldn't "see" them!  

And I realized...our lives are a mess too.  There are lots of things that "we can't see" until we get God involved.  We think we have things "all planned out", down to the "T", and in fairy-tale-ending detail...but we come up short.  Our contribution and thinking and planning are not enough if we are doing it in our own power.  

But God...

With God...

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  ~Matthew 19:26  

God has us covered, and more than that...He's already thought of what's next and He has (more than enough) provision for us to get there...and detailed (unique-to-each-one-of-us) plans for filling our lives.  But we must seek Him, and we must defer to Him, and only then can He match our provision with fulfillment.  His thinking, his plans, His ways are not our ways.  

  • “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  (9) "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  ~Isaiah 55:8

And once we enter into relationship with Jesus, He (in His time, not ours) reveals "the extra peppers on our counter".  The options/choices/blessings/and answers that we didn't see at first.  Were those there before?  Of course they were, but perhaps it was not time (before) for us to see them.

If we are feeling stuck today, or in-between...Trust the Lord to reveal what is next.  

  • Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  (6) Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  ~Proverbs 3:5-6

If we have started something but it seems like we misjudged, overshot, or miscalculated...give God time to reveal "what to do" with the surplus time/supply/people/resources.  He has a plan--we can be sure of that, but we have to take the time and effort to tap into it (and Him).  

  • Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  (6) Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  ~Jeremiah 29:11-13 

The trying times will come, and we will have seasons in our lives where we misjudge things/people/ventures/decisions.  (A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.  ~Proverbs 16:9).  It may seem that sometimes we have "leftovers" and at other times that our supplies have run dry, --but (almost always) in hindsight, when we look back in wisdom and healthiness (instead of victimization and bitterness), we see where God's hand was working and moving...in the lack or with the overflow. 

If we can make the spiritual leap to realize that God's recipe for our lives will always work out for our good, even when we don't understand His "measurements", then we can live less fretfully and more fully.  

  • 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.  ~Romans 8:28

The Lord is always at work in our lives, and we may see that with something as small as just-enough-peppers to match the stuffing that we made, or we may experience that on a much deeper level...it just depends on the day.  But either way, He takes care of us, and to Him be the glory.  

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, (21) to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  ~Ephesians 3:20

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com  

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