part 4 of "Good God" series
Snickerdoodles. Chocolate chip cookies. Red Velvet cupcakes. Carrot cake.
Did I get your attention?!
These are just a few of my favorite things. But they are also things that take a little bit of work to create. They take a little bit time and patience to get them to come out right. Life can be like that too. Grab a bowl and we can explore this together.
When making cookies or a cake - all the ingredients go into the mixing bowl and are mixed all together. The batter then goes on a cookie sheet or in a pan and placed into the oven. The oven is already heated up and within a 30 minutes or so you have some wonderful snickerdoodles or a cake to eat. The finished product is amazing a delicious to eat. But not all of the things that are in those cookies or that cake are good for us alone. There are both good and bad ingredients in those cookies or that cake you just made and are now eating.
The Good
The good things that go into the a batch of cookies would be things that you can eat by themselves and not get really sick - sugar, salt, chocolate chips, sprinkles or any other such things. These are the things you nibble on as you making up the batter - kind of like making bacon for breakfast!
The Bad
The bad things would be things like the flour, eggs or anything else that just normally would not throw into your mouth. These are the things you would not be nibbling on as you are making the cookies.
The Bowl
But all of those things listed above are thrown into the mixing bowl and blended together with the mixer. Then all of the good and bad things now mixed together are put on a cookie sheet and placed in the oven.
The Baker
The baker is most important at this time. The baker watches and keeps an eye on the cookies in the oven so they come out good and not burned. The baker may need to adjust the time they bake or maybe even the temperature of the oven. But the baker stays close by in order to ensure his creations are ok.
So where am I going with all of this? What does this have to do with anything?
This is a perfect picture of life. Life is the bowl. The good and bad ingredients represent the good and bad circumstances of life. The baker represents God.
“And we know that all things work together for good....” - Romans 8:28 NKJV
I know that is hard to believe. I know that with some of the things we face in life that any good will come from it. But the same can be said about a batch of cookies. “How can anything good come from this mess of stuff in this bowl?” But God is the master baker. God knows things that even we do not know yet. But we know that God is at work and working things out for the good. Now don’t get me wrong I know that when we face some things in life it is really hard to believe that God is doing good. But I assure He is. God can’t be evil and He is the “father of all compassion and comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The Bible also tells us that God’s plans for us are good...
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
God has been to our future. God knows that what we are facing in life right now is not the end. God knows that we will grow from what we are facing and be better people on the other side.
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The illustration used in this post was provided by Davey Blackburn in a message at Granger Community Church. https://grangerchurch.com/watch/?sapurl=LytkZTNkL2xiL21pLytjY3RmOWRuP2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==
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