Philippians 1:6 – “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

Girl, God is not through with you yet. He is still working on you. And he is using everything, I mean everything, for your good. Now it may not feel like it. But perhaps you just don’t understand God’s recipe.

I’m a 5th generation good cook. My Mama is a good cook and her mama is a good cook and her mama before that. Recipes have been handed down through the generations and now I have these gifts like the best homemade yeast rolls you have ever tasted, biscuits that will melt in your mouth and a cherry pie that should win some kind of award, in fact it has. And each recipe has one of those little surprise ingredients that gives it that extra goodness. Let’s take my cherry pie for example. Of course you have cherries and sugar, a little butter and salt and corn starch, but it’s the sprinkle of cinnamon that makes it so delicious. But have you ever tried to just eat a teaspoon of cinnamon? Back a few years ago all the kids were doing the cinnamon challenge, a dare to eat a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon. Those kids were hacking and gagging, spitting and begging for water.

Now how could that be? The same cinnamon that makes my cherry pie so delicious is used in an impossible dare that will make you sick.

See where I’m going with this?

Alone it is unbearable, but when used as part of a recipe, as part of a strategic plan it creates something wonderful.

I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but I’m willing to bet there’s something in your life that is less than desirable. Maybe it’s downright miserable. You don’t understand WHY this is happening and you don’t see how it’s all going to work out. But God has a plan for your life and it is a strategic plan. Our God has a strategy for how you will become the person he had in mind when he created you and how you reach your full potential. He takes things that seem unfavorable and he works them together in just the right ways at just the right times to fulfill his plan.

God started something good in you. Some cherries and some sugar. Everybody loves the cherries and the sugar part of life. We love the success and vacation days. Yes Lord, more of that. But the cinnamon, the same cinnamon that is impossible to stomach on it’s own, that little bit of unbearable, overpowering cinnamon sprinkled into your cherries and sugar, NOW YOU’RE COOKING!

We see each individual ingredient and we try to measure it’s value and worth in our life alone. But that’s not how God works. God takes all things together and he mixes them up just perfectly to create a good work in your life. Today won’t you trust that even this, this seemingly bad news, this apparent setback, this current struggle, this horrible tasting teaspoon of life being served up to you right now, yes that’s what I’m talking about, it is all part of the recipe. The master plan. God’s strategy can be trusted. He is for you not against you and he wants to use EVERYTHING for your good.

Stop singling out the individual events in your life as disasters, it’s just cinnamon. You don’t have to eat it alone. Remember you have some cherries and sugar too and let it all get mixed in together. Count your blessings during your trials, I promise it makes them easier to bare.

God’s not done with you yet. He’s still adding and mixing and perfecting his plan in you. You are going to be one delicious cherry pie. Now why do I suddenly want to sing “she’s my cherry pie” … no not appropriate, instead let’s pray.