We all want something better in life for 2020, but do you understand the ingredients and process required for the life you desire?

I come from a long line of good cooks. My mama taught me the secrets of a a thick flaky piecrust and a coconut cream filling with 3 inch high meringue worthy of the blue ribbon. But it’s her homemade bread that is most legendary. No one makes yeast rolls like my mama. I know her recipe and I follow it exactly, yet my bread still doesn’t rise quite like hers. So over Christmas I sat down with my mama and I watched her. I watched her flour drenched hands mix and knead and create and I saw exactly what I had been missing. Our ingredients had been exactly the same, however there was one difference between how my mama makes bread and how I was making bread. She takes her time working with the dough … I rush through the process. I’m gentle with the tender dough trying not to disturb it, she’s aggressive and relentless in kneading and mixing and working.

And this is why mama’s bread rises twice as high as mine.

The kneading process. The part where it’s pushed down, torn apart, squeezed, mashed together, and worked. This is what creates the rise.

Could we be much the same? We only rise after the hard parts? In fact, we only rise as a result of the hard times.

We all want to rise up to that next level of living and leave behind past troubles and hardships. We all want to excel forward and skip over the struggle. We’re seeking what can make it easier and get us there faster, when in fact it was never the ease and never the speed that helped us achieve anything. It was the kneading. It was the working.

To make homemade bread you need yeast. Yeast comes in a tiny little foil package with an expiration date printed on it. That yeast holds the potential of delicious bread, but it will never become anything if not used.

Within you is the same potential. Potential wrapped up in a tiny package that seems unimpressive. And yes, your potential has an expiration date on it. If not used in a timely manner, it loses it’s power. I’ve thrown away yeast I didn’t use in time … I’ve also thrown away potential I didn’t use in time. How about you?

Girl, what are you waiting on? If your creator gave you potential, why aren’t you ripping into it? Don’t save this up. Use what you have been given! Every ounce of potential was given to you for the purpose of USING IT, not storing it. You are not a storage container put here on earth to just house holy potential. You are a living, breathing soul sent here to live your life, make your impact and rise up in your potential.

But potential must be kneaded. It must be worked. It never just happens on it’s own.

Without giving away the family secret to our world class homemade bread, let me tell you about the ingredients added to the potential of yeast. Eggs … they’re broken. Water … it’s hot. Flour … it’s crushed.

You want a BIG, beautiful life? It comes with an expiration date and it’s made of what was broken, it’s made of trouble, and it’s made of what was crushed, then it’s all worked together. Not just mixed together, worked together. Worked and worked and worked.

Could there be a purpose in the broken things in your life? YES! Absolutely. What has been broken will not be wasted now. God is ready to use that to create something bigger and better than you ever imagined. If the egg is never broken, it’s never used.

Honey, if you’re never broken, you can never be used. You weren’t put here on earth to just sit there and look pretty. No, there’s a purpose for you and that purpose is revealed in the breaking. Embrace it and see what’s inside of you!

Where are the broken things in your life … this is what God wants to use!

You’ve heard the expression you’re in hot water now – what does that mean? It means you’re in trouble. Just as hot water is used to make that bread rise, trouble is used to raise you up to a new level of living. If you add cold water to the yeast, the yeast is killed. It’s the hot water that activates the yeast. It’s the trouble that activates your potential. Potential never rises up in the easy times. It’s in the hard times you find out what you’re made of and you tap into what your creator put within you. Are you in trouble right now … mix it with your potential and just see what happens.

Where are there troubles in your life … this is what God wants to use.

And finally the flour. Flour only comes from the process of crushing, literally crushing and grinding wheat. Oh what a painful process wheat must go through to become the fluffy flour that creates our homemade bread. And my sister, it is the painful process of crushing in your life that is creating within you. Crushing is part of the process. It is for a purpose. Something good is coming in your life.

Where have you been crushed … this is what God wants to use.

Isaiah 43:19 God says “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

There was trouble, it was broken and you were crushed … now God is doing something new here! And what he’s doing in your life doesn’t look like anything but a mess in it’s current state. A sticky, gooey, mess. That’s the dough. It sure doesn’t appear appealing. You don’t want to lick your fingers … but just you wait girl, you won’t believe what this is becoming!

When it’s all mixed together, this crushed flour, this hot water, this broken egg, and this little packet of potential with an expiration date, then it becomes something. And the more it’s worked together, the more it will rise.

If you look around right now and all you see is trouble, crushing and brokenness, my guess is you have potential that needs to be sprinkled on that and then get to working it relentlessly. Work it. Don’t be afraid of it. Work it. Get your hands in there and work it.

You know when we feel overwhelmed … when it’s all coming at us at once. When we have trouble, plus we have crushed dreams and broken things all at once, we are completely overwhelmed. But what if you could look at your overwhelm with a new perspective. What you have here with all of this together at the same time is the makings of something amazing. It may not look like it right now. It looks like a gooey mess, but sprinkle your potential given to you by your creator right in the middle of all that and let it be worked!

Working takes time. Let it happen. Let the process play out. Don’t give up in the hard parts. Stick with this. Believe that God is working all of this together for something good. Yes, that’s Romans 8:28 from God’s cookbook. You see God’s word is not only a playbook for how to show up and get in the game of life, but it’s also a cookbook showing you how to use all the ingredients you have and create something amazing.

It’s not that you were given a bad life and someone else was given a good life. It’s that we were each given a life, then it’s up to us what we do with it. You can make it something great or you can dwell in misery. The choice is yours. God’s cookbook tells me to use this!

It looks to me like you have the makings of something great in your life. You’ve got hot water, that’s the trouble. You have a few things that have been crushed, that’s the flour. You have been broken, yip those are the eggs. And you have this potential with an expiration date, that’s the yeast. It’s time to bring it all together now! Girl, we’re making bread up in here.

Today God says to you, his precious daughter who he placed all this potential within “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

It springs up … it is about to rise!!!!!

Let it rise! Let your spirits rise. Be renewed in your hope and faith. God is using all of this for good now. Your delay has been for the purpose of kneading, stop fighting the process and be worked with! Stop begrudging the ingredients of your life, don’t play the victim, it’s all part of something bigger than you. Rise up now. Rise up. Just imagine what God is doing now!