I made a yummy cheese sauce last week that brought back a funny memory. I was a young teenager, testing the waters of real deal cooking - when I say, real deal, I mean, ingredients that didn't consist of bright orange powder and dried macaroni in a box. I was making homemade macaroni and cheese. Boiling the macaroni was easy - make water boil - add macaroni. It was the cheese sauce that had me on the brink of tears and a full scale tantrum. Add flour and butter to a pot and stir together for 2 minutes. Slooooooooooooooooowly add milk. Continue to whisk until milk thickens...Herein lay the problem. I whisked, and whisked, and whisked, and WHISKED...NO THICKENING HAPPENING HERE! I called for my mom, she looks over my shoulder and calmly says.."Just keep stirring". "I've been stirring foreeeeeever Maaaaaaaawm!" (insert whine here). I figured I must have done something wrong but gave it a try anyway. I stood and stirred and, after what seemed like 3 hours, (which in reality was around 8 minutes) my whisker started to meet with just the tiniest resistance. Within minutes I was able to add cheese to my perfectly thickened sauce and finish cooking my first real meal. Victory.
I was reminded of that little episode because I started to feel the same panicky "it's not working!" feelings last week as I made a similar cheese sauce for my veggies (way to negate everything that's nutritious about veggies...). I stirred and stirred but there was no action. I took a second look at the directions and noticed that it said the thickening process should take around 7 minutes. I breathed a tiny sigh of relief as I had been only stirring for around 5. Still, that's a lot to happen in only 2 minutes...But, seriously, at 6 minutes and 50 seconds (give or take a couple seconds) - it happened. Victory again.
So, what does cheese sauce really have to do with prayers? As I stood over my simmering pot, I thought of how cheese sauce looks so hopeless for the greater part of the cooking, then, in the tiniest last moments, it happens. My prayer life has been like this often. I have prayed for days or weeks or even years and have never seen action, but then, just like the miracle of cheese sauce (o.k...I'm probably taking that a little far...), it happens. God shows me what He's doing. Truth is, He's probably been working all along, doing things behind the scenes that I can't see. But then, it all unfolds and He gives me a glimpse of His power and how He has answered my prayers.
I was reminded of that little episode because I started to feel the same panicky "it's not working!" feelings last week as I made a similar cheese sauce for my veggies (way to negate everything that's nutritious about veggies...). I stirred and stirred but there was no action. I took a second look at the directions and noticed that it said the thickening process should take around 7 minutes. I breathed a tiny sigh of relief as I had been only stirring for around 5. Still, that's a lot to happen in only 2 minutes...But, seriously, at 6 minutes and 50 seconds (give or take a couple seconds) - it happened. Victory again.
So, what does cheese sauce really have to do with prayers? As I stood over my simmering pot, I thought of how cheese sauce looks so hopeless for the greater part of the cooking, then, in the tiniest last moments, it happens. My prayer life has been like this often. I have prayed for days or weeks or even years and have never seen action, but then, just like the miracle of cheese sauce (o.k...I'm probably taking that a little far...), it happens. God shows me what He's doing. Truth is, He's probably been working all along, doing things behind the scenes that I can't see. But then, it all unfolds and He gives me a glimpse of His power and how He has answered my prayers.
I love the first verse of Luke 18. It says; " Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up."
If you've been praying or want to pray about something that may seem hopeless. Jesus doesn't want you to give up. Keep praying. He will come through.
(for the rest of the parable - read below)
2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
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