Corona Devo 1593

Somewhere in my adulthood of cooking, (sweetened) mint tea became a staple on our household beverage docket.  We grow mint (of all kinds) in our yard, and I remember developing a burden on my heart to be productive with at least some of it (mint spreads like wildfire).

I tried a number of mint-infused recipes, and mint tea became a winner for us.  

You pick and wash the mint leaves, cut them up, and then I put them in a little diffuser that drops into the pitcher of hot water (with some sugar dissolved in it), and the diffuser bobs around with the teabags that are steeping.  After a while, Viola!, you have yummy sweet mint tea.

But in the Wintertime, the mint in our yard dies, like most plants in the Midwest do.  But our consumption of mint tea can't die, and so I began buying spearmint-flavored teabags.  

Turns out, the mint teabags are much easier to make mint sweet tea with.  You just throw them in with some regular teabags, and Viola!, you have yummy mint tea.  There's no picking-the-mint, washing it, chopping it, stuffing it in the diffuser, etc.  It's easier. 

But--truth be told, the mint sweet tea from teabags just doesn't taste as authentically-minty as the tea made with our yard mint plants.  It's just not as good.  The flavor is not as deep.  It lacks the real mint richness.

Fast-forward to today.  

We have had mint growing in our yard for months now, but everytime I make mint tea, it's just easier and less time-consuming to throw some mint teabags in, rather than go outside, pick some leaves, and go through the whole process of using real mint.  

They are right outside, but I just haven't made the effort to go get them. 

Tonight, I (finally) did.  It actually didn't take that much time, even with the picking/washing/cutting/putting-in-the-diffuser process.  

And, Viola!, (wow), I had forgotten how delicious the authentic mint tea tastes.  It was worth the effort.

~~~

Spoiler Alert: The Bible is nothing like mint tea.

But, if we have become comfortable with something other than authentic time reading the actual pages of the Bible in order to connect with God or to receive His Word for our life...then it's time to make the effort to go back to the authentic Source.  

Only the Bible (which is God's Word) can penetrate our hearts and cut-us-to-the heart.  No man or woman or song or text or devotional or class can do that for us.  

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  ~Hebrews 4:12    

~~~

When Jesus spoke to people and was-with-them: they experienced Him.  He spoke into their hearts.  They were changed by Him.  

The Bible is the #1 Source for us to enter into those same experiences and outcomes in our faith as well.  If we will read God's Word, He will open our eyes.   When we read the Bible, our hearts will burn within us.  When we read the Bible, God and the Holy Spirit will open the Scriptures to us.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. (31) Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. (32) They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  

(33) They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” (35) Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.  ~Luke 24:30-35

~~~

Turns out, devotionals and podcasts and even sermons are much easier to listen to, read, or "take in", because someone else has done the processing of God's Word for us.  We can press play, turn on the radio, or open-up to the page with today's date and, Viola!, we have an interpretation and application of the Bible for today.  

But--truth be told, the second-hand study and delivery-methods of the Bible just don't (can't) taste as authentic as us (personally) reading God's Word and hearing from Him individually, uniquely, intimately.

Anything else (as our main source), is just not as good.  The flavor is not as deep.  It lacks the real richness that God has for us if we will come to Him directly.

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.  ~Jeremiah 15:16

~~~

Fast-forward to today.  

It's just easier and less time-consuming to hear from someone else about God's Word, rather than to sit down, get quiet, and to read the Bible for ourselves.

Sometimes we tell ourselves that the Bible is just too hard to understand, outdated, or too time consuming.  We just don't make the effort. 

Today---let's make the effort, and (I guarantee), God will meet us right there on His pages.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Jeremiah 29:13

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Don't get me wrong: if you are reading this devotional, and are in anyway encouraged, blessed, or challenged in Christ, then I have succeeded in serving Him.  But God's Words are better/richer/more authentic than mine everyday and everytime.

Only He knows exactly what you need to hear today.

And it will also be (only) Him that we will one day give an account to about how well we knew Him and his Word.  

It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”  (12) So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.  ~Romans 14:11-12

~~~

Mint tea made with real mint leaves is just better.  And hearing from the Lord first-hand through the reading of His Word is also just better.  

I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.  

(130) The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.  ~Psalm 119:125, 130

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com