Sunday Morning Breakfast

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:8-14 ESV). The reading today comes in the midst of encouragement to the people of Israel in their captivity. Because of their sin, God allowed them to be taken captive by the Babylonians. This was to last for seventy years. However, even during that time, God promised to be with them and bring them back home. It is a great picture of the faithfulness of God. I was reminded of that faithfulness one Sunday as I was preparing breakfast. Every Sunday I cook breakfast. It’s a tradition that we have developed over the years. Usually it consists of the same things. I have fallen into a routine as I prepare it. The pancake mix is the most involved of all the preparations. I don’t like to use just a mix for the batter. I haven’t been able to make them fluffy enough without adding a few ingredients. I always add a little sugar, vanilla, baking powder, and club soda. They turn out light and fluffy every time! If you’ve ever cooked with baking powder, you know it doesn’t taste good by itself. Alone it is unpalatable, but without it, the recipe would be incomplete. God works in our lives in much the same way. He has a goal in mind, an end in sight. Some of our experiences are quite painful, even bitter. We go through times of difficulty, which seem purposeless. If we focused on them, we would surely be discouraged and lose hope. The key is not focusing on the process. Baking powder is just as necessary for the success of a cake as is the sugar. Don't focus on the process, but rather trust that God will use all our experiences, both pleasant and painful, to mold us into what He desires. A. J. Gordon noted that if you tear down a sparrow’s nest the little bird will build again in the same place. However, if you pull it down several times, she will seek a new location, a shelter higher up, where it will be less vulnerable. Gordon then observed that Christians are not always so wise. They form dwelling places of happiness and hope in this temporal world, only to see them pulled down time after time. Yet after each brief interval of sighs and tears, they begin building all over again in the same way. They never realize that through their defeats the Lord is directing them to put their security in Him. Don’t focus on the mere process. Trust in the Lord.