Follow the Recipe

I don’t mean to make your mouths water, but recently, at Glyndley Manor, we’ve been having the best desserts ever. Actually we’ve had some excellent main courses too. Today was no exception, as we were served macaroni cheese with a crispy top. I suppose now you’re wondering why this should be, and why I’m talking about it. Well, the other day, having eaten a perfect bread and butter pudding I began to think about how and why such perfection is coming from our kitchen.

At present we’re without a full time chef, and so the cooking is being undertaken by some of the young people. These young people are from South Korea, Hong Kong and Hungary, so none of the dishes that they are producing are familiar to them. As I began to consider this further, I realised that, because the dishes are alien to them, they’re following the recipe to the letter. The result is that the end product is as it should be. You see, when we’re familiar with a recipe, we tend add a bit here and there, and time it by guess work. When we do this, we end up with something which isn’t quite the same as if we’d followed the recipe.

Our verse today clearly says that if we are ‘willing and obedient’ then we shall ‘eat the good of the land’. This is to say that, if we follow what the Bible teaches, and what God says to us, if we hold steadfastly to His Word, and seek to walk in Jesus’ ways, then we we’ll do well.

I have a friend who uses the expression ‘It’s all in the book’ and they’re right. All we need to know is written in His Word. In Isaiah 48:17 we read ‘I will teach you all you need to know to live a wonderful life and I will lead you clearly in the right path'. I wonder how many of us struggle to remain obedient to His Word. Or, to put it another way, do we follow the recipe to the letter?

Do we take the bits out of His Word that we find hard? These are the bits that don’t quite sit well with us, or seem to stand too much against the beliefs of this world. Are we easily swayed and distracted from the Word of God and the truth that it is? Do we follow what we feel, or what we know is right and true? And, when we don’t know what to do, or what the truth is, do we turn to His Word, or do we try and figure it out ourselves?
Perhaps we add and subtract from the recipe to make our version of the truth. These are the things we need to guard against. We need more and more to be people who test everything against the Scripture and who’re willing to live by the measuring line that God has given us (Isaiah 28:16-17).

We’re living in days that are getting darker, and the challenge for us is to be people who’re willing and obedient to follow God’s recipe so we can be used to bring light into the darkness.

Prayer: Father God thank You that You’ve given us Your inspired word. Thank You that, through the Holy Spirit, Your word is living and active. It gives us all we need to know to live an abundant life. Father I recognise that I sometimes neglect the reading of Your Word, and that I sometimes don’t read the bits I don’t like or understand. Please forgive me for this, and teach me Your ways. Lord, I desire to be a light in the darkness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.