2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV
The day I started to realize that when I trusted God, I mean really put my hand in God’s hand and kept it there, was probably the day I was set free.
I don’t remember how old I was when that happened. I don’t know how I came to realize God really was powerful enough and loving enough to direct my heart.
I think it was a gradual knowing.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:5 we are told, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
Someone once told me when I was younger that sometimes God works slowly over time, sometimes God works with us at a steady pace over time, and sometimes God can work really fast in someone’s life. It’s a little like a slow cooker, rice cooker, and sometimes it’s like a pressure cooker.
That really made sense to me.
That’s probably because I’ve been a cook for at least 45 years.
Mind you, I didn’t wake up one day and decide I wanted to be a cook. For me it happened as a means of survival. Since my Mom, my Grandmother, and even my Great-Grandmother are/were great cooks, I had the benefit of a lot of great family recipes.
Lots of great recipes.
See, what happened is that I became a cook because I had children who expected to eat. They expected to eat three meals a day.
My daughter was the oldest and she has always been the kind of child who does what she’s told. I told her to eat and she ate. She’s never been a complainer so she ate what I cooked.
She is the oldest of three brothers.
What I noticed about the boys is that I didn’t have to tell them to eat.
They ate.
All four children were very active. They were cheerleaders, football players, baseball players, swimmers, and they were runners.
They ate. They ate a lot so I cooked a lot.
Through the years people have told me they can’t get their kids to eat. Really?
Then they ask me how I handled that problem. I told them when I put the food on the table it disappeared. The only problem I had was that my youngest son wasn’t as big as his two older brothers so he had to learn to be creative. He had to learn to fend for himself when I wasn’t watching.
He did learn how to get his share of the food.
All I remember is that no matter how much I cooked, we didn’t have leftovers. They ate what I cooked.
So what does that have to do with God and the slow cooker, rice cooker, and pressure cooker?
Well, no matter what I cooked or how I cooked it, they ate it. With God no matter what God gives we accept it.
We didn’t have any picky eaters at our house and no food went to waste. It was really easy. When we’re not picky and demand our own way, we accept what God gives.
In 2 Thessalonians the Apostle Paul’s prayer was filled with wisdom and loving-care for the Christians in Thessalonica.
Paul wanted them to know…really know that they don’t have to face what tomorrow brings with blood sweat and tears. They don’t have to do the hard work themselves. God through Jesus made it easy for them.
Paul was telling them that the Lord will direct them to Him (the Lord of love and the Lord of endurance, patience, and steadfastness.)
Another way of looking at it is that God has it all covered.
The Message version says, “May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.”
The Master will lead you.
Learning how to cook was ever so easy for me because I had such a willing audience. They never complained and they ate whatever I put on the table.
When we go TO God and put our hand in His hand and we choose to keep it there, we are set free. Sometimes we come to that slowly, sometimes it’s a daily choice, and sometimes we trust God immediately.
Once we really trust God we are free to love life and it becomes easy.
Spiritual Practice: Your Hand
Put your hand in God’s hand. Decide you want to keep your hand in God’s hand. Ask God to set you free.
In God, Deborah
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