Have you ever wondered why certain things just go together? Why do sweet and salty combinations complement one another? What made that first person smother peanut butter sprinkled with chocolate chips on top of a stalk of healthy celery? What about dousing sweet, thirst quenching watermelon with salt or wrapping perfectly fermented pickles in a fat-dripping strip of bacon? It’s all so mouth-wateringly unexpected and GOOD!
Seriously though. Isn’t that just like life?
Sometimes we seem to experience our sweetest blessings alongside life’s bitterness. I truly don't intend to turn this tasty conversation upside-down in a depressing way. But when I think about my own life, I see how the very best lessons were learned in the midst of my darkest days. They are the very lessons that led me to a new life, to a soul-quenching salvation and to meeting a man my heart longed for before I ever knew it!
You see, when light emerges from the darkness of stress or struggle, when we do the hard work of walking through the hurt, we see so much more clearly how Christ is calling us.
Is there any bigger blessing than feeling the heart-prick of God’s presence and a wide-eye-opening to our purpose? I think not.
Because when God combines our lives with just the right amount or sweet and salty, when He blesses us with bittersweet circumstances, it’s our job to drop to our knees and turn our eyes up to Him. He’s cooking up just the right flavor combinations to complement the lives He created for us. Our Father knows the exact ingredients to soften our hearts, heal our hurts, save our souls and sanctify us so we can come to Him without a single flaw in His sight.
It’s our jobs to take His handiwork and respond to the calling He gives us to love and serve others as Christ did. We can use every unexpected burden or bitterness and turn it into sweetness for someone else. And that’s how His kingdom grows through us! AMAZING, isn’t it?
So, if you ever wonder why you're walking through what you do, if you feel like taking one more step might suffocate you in stress from today's demands or if you simply can't see the purpose in your personal struggles, remember this:
God gave you your journey to bless others with it. That's right...even your burdens can bless others! You're equipped with a perfectly unexpected combination of experiences to love and serve others in a way no one else can. Which means YOUR STORY is essential to help heal someone's hurts and to serve someone else with His love.
So instead of stressing or side stepping the tough stuff today, pray God reveals the gift in it all. Then give your gift away.
1 Corinthians 1: 3-5 says it this way: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too."
Share your messy, strangely concocted story--even your struggles and suffering-- and all the unexpected ways so that you glorify Him as you comfort and serve others.
Oh and since food always inspires me...or my ideas always inspire recipes, here’s a sweetly unexpected combination of ingredients that’ll nourish your body and remind you of just how wonderful life’s lessons can taste when God combines them in His magnificent way! Grain FREE, refined sugar FREE Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
The cake is a Member Post...if you are not currently registered as a Happily Whole Member, the link will take you to where you can sign up.
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