Trusting God With Your Mix
Do you trust God with your life’s mix? Using the illustration of baking chocolate chip muffins, we'll talk about trusting God with our mix. The Lord is my baker and we have all the ingredients we would ever need. There are the different elements that make up the outcome of this muffin, just like how there are different elements that make up the outcome of our lives.
Let’s look at Psalm 23:
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
“I TRUST GOD TO KNOW WHAT TO ADD TO MY LIFE”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
Our lives are like a dish that is made up of a whole bunch of different elements that make up who we are. Think about where we were born, our children, our race, our DNA, our gifts, our lives. There are all these elements that are meant to work together so that our lives reflect the glory of God.
To make chocolate chip muffins, there is a list of ingredients to have. These may vary, depending on what type of recipe you’re following but it would generally include flour, vanilla, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips. Along with the baking process, these elements work together to make up great chocolate chip muffins. Getting these ingredients together is the very start of the process and at the very start of everything in our lives, God is the baker. He knew and still knows what to put in the recipe of our lives. He doesn’t stress us out, instead He guides us along the right path for His name’s sake.
“I TRUST GOD TO SIFT THINGS OUT OF MY LIFE”
“He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake.”
When you’re making chocolate chip muffins and things aren’t combined evenly, the mixture can become lumpy. What it takes is a sifting process to even out all the elements so that each element can be integrated and combined well.
What does “lumpy” look like in our lives? Things may have happened that have caused experiences that make us angry, disappointed, hurt. But with God, we can sift these emotions out – jealousy, anger, hurt. Those things don’t have to stay in our lives. Take a moment to ask God to sift these things out of your life.
“I TRUST GOD BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT’S BEST”
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil...”
When I was in my late 20s, I lived with my brother. We lived in an apartment together and he had a girlfriend then. From Thursdays to Sundays, he would be out, and I’d be alone in the apartment. I used to hate that so much – it was dark and I felt fearful. I would tell my mom how much I hated it and she would say, maybe God’s getting you ready for a husband that travels.
God knew back then that I didn’t like that experience but eventually I got used to be being in a house alone. I was able to adapt and not freak out anymore. I got used to relying on the Holy Spirit. Now I have a husband who travels, and I don’t fall apart when he is not around. God knew the beginning and the end of what I was being prepared for.
Whatever that you may be going through, sometimes it’s not the enemy but it’s God preparing you for something to come in your life.
“I TRUST GOD EVEN IN THE MIXED-UP SEASONS”
Have you seen the type of dough that’s combined but not mixed? It’s messy. All the elements are in a mixing bowl but it’s a blob and not really anything quite ready or finished. It’s the same in our lives sometimes. God puts everything together and to us, it looks like a mess. We look at the mess and we go, “what did we miss, God?” God is not finished with us yet. We may not know what’s going on with all the things in our lives, but God does.
In the Bible, there are so many stories we could reference that give us a glimpse of how the story looks like a mess midway. Like how Joseph ends up in prison. Or when David was running for his life. You don’t really know the end of the story, but God does. He’s got a plan and a purpose for each of us.
“I TRUST GOD IN THE STIRRING SEASONS”
“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Ruth in the Bible, she had a great father-in-law, husband and brother-in-law. They all died. A stirring began to happen in her heart, and she eventually follows her mother-in-law. She tells Naomi, “Your God will be my God; your people will be my people.” It was a stirring in her to follow Naomi, it was a stirring that got her ready to meet her Boaz.
For the muffins, the mixing bowl needs to be stirred and mixed. That’s how the elements get combined and ready for the oven. What is God stirring in your life today? He is getting you ready for a promise, a word, a great blessing that He has for you. Has he been stirring you to lead a Connect? Perhaps to open your home to host one? Is he stirring you to be a Carrier in the house of God? Not just to attend church, but to carry all that the church is doing by being an usher, or help at the production desk, or help with the Kids team. What’s God stirring in your heart?
“I TRUST GOD IN THE POURING SEASONS”
After you’ve stirred and combined the ingredients, it needs to be poured out into a baking tray to go into the oven.
That’s exactly what God does to us. He pours our life out as an offering for others and the moment you realise that your life is not about you, you’ll be so much happier. I remember having this revelation when I was in the airplane bathroom. My son had thrown milk at another passenger, urinated over me, and vomited on the passenger in front of him. It was a mess! I went to the bathroom and looked at the mirror and said, “God, I QUIT! I cannot do this anymore.”
In that moment, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “this life is not about you.” I was put on the Earth, in this life, for God. There is a call of God on each of our lives, but it is for others. Think about the people in your life who needs to know about Jesus.
God requires us to be poured out because He’s got something in mind, something bigger than what we could know or imagine. Do you trust God in your pouring season?
“I TRUST GOD IN THE HEAT”
Can you imagine eating in front of your enemy? If there was a negative emotion attached to anything, it would be attached to your enemy. It could conjure up emotions of anger, intimidation, fear. But this is what the Bible says - you could sit across our enemies and have peace.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The final step of baking chocolate muffins is letting them go into the oven. There’s self-raising flour in the bowl but it can’t do anything until it’s in the heat. When it gets under heat, it rises.
Just like us, sometimes we may feel like we’ve been put in the heat but it’s to get something to rise out of us. It was in us all along – the skill, the gift, the passion, the grace, but it needed the heat to get it out of us. Do you trust God in the heat?
“I TRUST GOD WITH THE END RESULT”
What would life look like if goodness and love followed you everywhere you went until the end of your life? What would that look like in your home or at your workplace?
“While I am here I will be a child at home with my God; the whole world shall be His house to me; and when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house; I shall only go to dwell in the upper storey of the house of the Lord forever.”
This is what Charles Spurgeon said. He lived a full life where he viewed life on Earth not as though he would change his company. He would merely change the location of where his house was.
Perhaps you are someone have struggled to trust God with your whole life. Maybe you’ve trusted Him with your finances but not your kids, or you trust God with your work but not with your spouse. If God is our shepherd, we’ve got to give Him His staff back and trust Him with all the areas of our lives.
Click HERE to watch the ‘Trusting God With Your Mix” sermon
*Extracted from ‘Trusting God With Your Mix’ sermon by Jemima Varughese
Jemima is married to Mark and leads Kingdomcity Communications Ltd. They have two sons, Zeke and Caleb.