14 Mar Get the Recipe Right
Get the Recipe Right
by Jim Graff
Growing up, I had a huge extended family. My mom and dad had eight siblings each, which meant a lot of cousins for me! Every year, from Christmas Eve to New Years’ Day, we would visit every single house. That meant that you could gain 25 lbs. over the holidays if you wanted!
One year, one of my cousins was missing some of our favorite recipes, so she made a cookbook for each of us with all of our parent’s classic recipes. Last year, on our date night, I told my wife that we should try to make my mom’s famous sugar cookies. So we got the recipe out, made them, and put them in the oven. After they were done baking, I took them out, took the first part, and they fell apart in my mouth… and not in a good way!
Later, as I was preparing a message I thought about David’s words in Psalm 34:8, “I want you to taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.” What’s David saying here? God has a recipe for us to have an amazing life. If we will follow it, our life will taste sweet. But if we don’t, our lives like those cookies, will fall apart… and not in a good way.
So where do we find that recipe? We get our recipe right when we spend time in the Word, meditating on God’s promises. We also receive ingredients to our recipe when we spend time in prayer, talking to God about our life. You know what Scripture is and what prayer is, but you may not understand meditation. So, let’s talk about it.
Meditation is something we usually do in the evening, after our day is coming to an end. It’s thinking back on the Scripture we’ve read and on the individual things he has spoken to us, and then lining them up with the day we just lived. Did we follow the recipe? Meditation is also declaring God’s promises over any situation or challenge we may have faced.
When we learn to meditate on God’s promises, three things happen. We receive the stability that success requires. Psalm 1:3 says that when we meditate on God’s word, we become like a tree that’s been planted near water. We get roots to grow strong. We don’t worry because we know we’re firmly planted in Him.
Secondly, we receive the resources that success requires. We receive a constant source of water that strengthens our roots. Lastly, it brings us the success. It brings us a beautiful tree that yields beautiful fruit.
So today, stop and ask yourself: is the recipe of your life working? If not, what are you missing out on? Bible reading? Prayer? Meditation? Picture the life you want and make the changes you need to get it.
You have an incredible future waiting for you. With God’s help, you can choose to live it!