Most women like the kitchen - I am not one of them. Just the word "cook" makes me uncomfortable. I do not volunteer to help in the kitchen, and shy away when women start discussing recipes. When I got married I struggled to figure out when meat was properly cooked - so my poor husband always had to come and save me from embarassment. The kitchen tests my courage. I wrestle with food, dishes, the oven and the fridge and always feel like a hero when I come up with a concoction that looks decent - it is like looking at your new-born baby and thinking: Did I make this?
I've been watching the well-known TV series Masterchef and admire the guts of the contestants. The way they stir the most unusual ingredients together, and pretend as if they know how to flog a bird. For me it seems very bizarre! They can look at ingredients and make it work - they stir exotic spices together and cook up a storm with such elegance, such style, such precision.
Sometimes in my christian walk I feel like a recipe in the making. Have you ever just looked at a bowl of flour? It seems so simple and useless - actually it is pretty useless until you add eggs and milk and butter and stir it altogether....then it becomes dough and the whole taste, flavour, texture and purpose of the flour changes.
I sometimes hear christians say: "I feel a stirring in my Spirit." Have you ever felt the stirring they are talking about? It is a feeling in your spirit that mixes everything together, makes everything seem grey, undefined, unplanned. You don't always know whether you should move or stand, run or hide....those stirrings normally lead you to ask people for prayer, or to seek wisdom from your mentors. Everything seems out of place. But yet there is an excitement, an expectancy for something great, because the whole form of your simple and useless flour life is taking on a new texture....and soon you will turn into something tasty.
If you are emotional like me these times are the most difficult to understand and cope with. It challenges your relationship with God. But this is what is truly amazing about being stirred in the Spirit...you are in the hands of a Masterchef, and not in the hands of someone that hopes the recipe will come out right (like me!!!) God looked at you and had a plan, an idea to not only keep you in your current form, but transform you into something that will taste good, something beautiful and spectucular that will cause people to come back for more.
So what should I do when I feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit? It is interesting that the Greek word for stirring means "to kindle afresh" or "keep in good flame." In these times of chaos and shaking, it is as if God is rekindling our love for Him, our desire to make him our only True love. In the old Testament the word "stirring" sometimes referred to people being moved to offer of themselves, to give something of themselves. Exodus 35:21 says: "And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom the Spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments." It is interesting that from the stirring came a willingness to offer, and then came a release into service.
Sometimes the stirring of the Spirit helps us to rekindle the flame of passion for God to offer ourselves to Him completely and be transformed so that we can be released into new things. Timothy was stirred in his giftings after the elders prayed for him, and he was released into new things. But in order for God to release us and change us into a new form, He first has to get us to a place of surrender to His goodness, acknowledging that He is the Masterchef, so the release into new things can glorify Him and be an offering to the church. People want to taste the goodness of God in our lives, and the Masterchef can only create it in our lives if we surrender to His stirring.
I am challenged to view these change in circumstances, these new revelations flooding my mind and challenging my flesh, these mixed emotions and uncomfortable stirrings as an opportunity to be rekindled, refreshed and released for the Glory of God and the enjoyment of all people!
Let the Masterchef create something spectacular out of your life!
If you are emotional like me these times are the most difficult to understand and cope with. It challenges your relationship with God. But this is what is truly amazing about being stirred in the Spirit...you are in the hands of a Masterchef, and not in the hands of someone that hopes the recipe will come out right (like me!!!) God looked at you and had a plan, an idea to not only keep you in your current form, but transform you into something that will taste good, something beautiful and spectucular that will cause people to come back for more.
So what should I do when I feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit? It is interesting that the Greek word for stirring means "to kindle afresh" or "keep in good flame." In these times of chaos and shaking, it is as if God is rekindling our love for Him, our desire to make him our only True love. In the old Testament the word "stirring" sometimes referred to people being moved to offer of themselves, to give something of themselves. Exodus 35:21 says: "And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom the Spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments." It is interesting that from the stirring came a willingness to offer, and then came a release into service.
Sometimes the stirring of the Spirit helps us to rekindle the flame of passion for God to offer ourselves to Him completely and be transformed so that we can be released into new things. Timothy was stirred in his giftings after the elders prayed for him, and he was released into new things. But in order for God to release us and change us into a new form, He first has to get us to a place of surrender to His goodness, acknowledging that He is the Masterchef, so the release into new things can glorify Him and be an offering to the church. People want to taste the goodness of God in our lives, and the Masterchef can only create it in our lives if we surrender to His stirring.
I am challenged to view these change in circumstances, these new revelations flooding my mind and challenging my flesh, these mixed emotions and uncomfortable stirrings as an opportunity to be rekindled, refreshed and released for the Glory of God and the enjoyment of all people!
Let the Masterchef create something spectacular out of your life!
|
Post a Comment
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post