The Threshing Floor

My Thoughts on a Friday...................

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Hahahaha

Just having fun.

Do you ever have those days? No bad thoughts, not hectic adversity, not pressing needs that absolutely have to be done today? Not very often, right?

It seems we live in a world today where everything is and has to be immediate. We have, with microwave popcorn and instant mashed potatoes, created instant need and instant gratification.

We don't want to wait for much. Some rock star sings a song, I want it all, I want it all and I want it now. Welcome to life in the 21st Century.

Some things are just better if we learn to wait a little. My wife has a slow cooker. You can put food in it in the morning and let it slowly cook all day long, and if you can be patient and wait, it produces unbelievable meals. I like red beans & rice. Sometimes she will cut up some smoked sausage, add some red beans, onions, salsa and some other secret spices and throw all that in the slow cooker in the morning. We can leave the cooker alone. we don't have to be there to watch it, stir it, add anything, turn it up or down. We just put all the ingredients in, turn it on and trust it to do it's job. In the evening when we return home, and open the door.....as soon as the door is open we can tell that our patience has paid off.

There in the slow cooker taking care of itself is

the delicious meal that my wife prepared,
proper ingredients, right amount of heat

and time and leaving the slow cooker to do

it's job has produced a meal that I waited

on all day long.

I think sometimes that life might be better if we

could learn to take time, let all the ingredients of life

"cook" in us and let our experience with God work for us.

I'm sure you could throw the sausage, beans and other stuff in a microwave bowl and whip it all up in a few minutes, but you would lose the savor in the meal.

I think sometimes when we want instant gratification, instant satisfaction, instant everything and we don't wait on God to work in our lives, we lose the Saviour in our lives too.

We lose strength when we fail to wait. We lose our ability to rise above struggles in life when we lose patience. We lose the power of endurance when we seek instant gratification. We can't wait on our marriage and our personal lives to mature, we want gratification or we want out. NOW.

We lose the ability to just walk through life and enjoy the little things that make a life happy when we seek instant justification. We tire of simple pleasures way too fast.

This morning in my reading, I was in Isaiah and I began the 40th chapter out of the discipline of doing my daily reading. Hurrying because I had to go to the license branch, I had to stop at the church this morning, I have to make sure the vans are gassed up and ready to go to the rally, I have to take everybody's paycheck to them, I have to get the bent rim fixed from the chuck hole, oh, I have to post my blog. :)

I have so much to do that I need to hurry through my reading so I can get everything done right away.

But as I read quickly, I got to that old familiar part at the end of Isaiah 40......here. let me show you........

Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

and as I sat in my favorite chair, the Lord quickened to my mind that He is my strength, He is my hope, he gives me the ability to rise above the everyday, mundane struggles of life. He is the enduring power that allows me to have hope..........hope here and now, but also hope beyond this life.

So, you know what? Today I'm gonna throw some smoked sausage in my slow cooker, I'm gonna put some red beans and salsa, some onions and secret spices in the pot. I'm gonna allow life to just come as it may. I'll get some of the "stuff" done that needs to get done today, but today I live life because He has given me strength.

Today, I'm waitin' on God. Others may faint today, and that is sad, some may get weary and fall.

But today, I'll let God lift me on eagles wings, I'll walk with God today. I took the time to read chapter 40 again.

Sometimes we just need to slow down, wait on God. Let His ingredients in our lives, along with the right amount of heat and time create in us a savor that only the Saviour can cook up. Life is a process, it is not achieved in a day, a week, a month or a year.

Let Jesus have the time He needs to create in you what He wants to create.

Oh, by the way, in your busyness this week, plan a little time for God.

SEE YOU SUNDAY!!!!