Recipe Box

“Instead of trying to fix yourself, fix your gaze on Me, the lover of your soul. Rather than using your energy to judge yourself, redirect it to praising Me. Remember that I see you clothed in my righteousness, radiant in My perfect love.” Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young

Hummmmmmm….let me see……..Reading this quote today I see two recipes brewing. One recipe comes with a do-it-yourself fix it kit fully equipped with the energy waste of constantly judging ourselves. Along with a “avoid when possible” warning label or do not add at all the thought that God sees us clothed in His righteousness, radiant in His perfect love. Not a very appealing recipe I must say. Kind of like pumpkin pie, YUK! Oh sorry to all the pumpkin pie lovers out there, including my husband.

Recipe number two comes with an eye correction formula to fix our gaze on Jesus while redirecting our energy to praise Him. Always to be included, never to be left out is the need to stir in well remembering God sees us clothed in His righteousness, radiant with His perfect love. Now that’s one of those recipes we should have memorized in our hearts because we’ve made it so many times. Like non-bake cookies! Yummy.

Either way we are the ones who get to choose between the two. When we reach into our recipe box we usually know what we are after. We might change our mind between chocolate chip cookies and German chocolate cake but we still get what we choose.

When it comes to our relationship with the Lord we get what we choose, believe it or not. Instead of fixing ourselves we can fix our eyes on God. Rather than judging ourselves we can use that energy to praise God. The choice is ours and whether we want to admit it or not the end result will be ours too.

It doesn’t make sense to put together a recipe of something that just doesn’t work well. People out there in Readerland, have you ever put in salt instead of the sugar, baking powder instead of baking soda, pancake mix instead of flour? It didn’t work did it! The first thing a person is told when they begin to cook is how to read a recipe. ½ means just that not 1 plus 2 more. 1 tsp is smaller than the 1 tb and the list of lessons go on.

Our Christian walk is no different. We need to learn how to put it together in a fashion that works well. Some have the knack for it like people have the knack for baking. On the other hand others struggle at getting the results they are after. Either way it’s a goal that is achievable that will get us an end result that is yummy, eternal life with Christ.

The first thing into the bowl of our life should be fixing our eyes on Jesus. We’ve allowed our eyes to wander to long searching for things that shouldn’t be. Other things to satisfy us, to justify us, and give us the excuses we are after for not following God. We have a choice to either stand hovered over our bowl all day long stirring and stirring to get the lumps out or we can get out the mixer and get it done quicker and smoother. It depends on where we want to direct our energy. Judging ourselves constantly will never get all the lumps out; it’s a waste of energy after awhile. Setting our gaze and thoughts on praising God is the quicker and more efficient way to get it done.

Last but not least is the icing on the cake which is the fact that God sees us in His righteousness, radiant in His light and love. It’s the icing on the cake that covers up the imperfections of the cake itself as it dresses it up into something of great beauty. A beauty seen through God’s eyes not the world’s vision of what being beautiful is all about. It begins at the recipe box. It ends at the righteousness of our hearts thanks to Jesus.


Speaking of choices our host today is Debbie over at Heart Choices. Run over there and join in and let’s see what the end result will be. With Jesus as the main ingredient it will be yummy.

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing