1 Thessalonians 5:18 – In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (NKJV)

Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! (NKJV)

Let me start off with some home truths. First and foremost, I am a klutz. Secondly, I really procrastinate when it comes to making a decision and taking action.

I have been pondering awhile on completing and submitting a meditation to PresbyCan Daily Devotional. Prayerfully, I have sought whether this was a plan that God had for me, since I am far less active than in years gone by, and increasingly deaf, making group activities a real challenge. And so, as so often happens in my life, God pushed me off the cliff this morning, and here we go.

It's a cloudy, cool Saturday morning, and as usual, I was up before the sun. Fine, I thought, after completing my devotions. Let's feed the hungry with some fresh muffins. I whipped up a bowl of batter for blueberry muffins, lined the bake pans, and preheated the oven. Next, the klutz took over. After I had spooned the batter into each muffin cup, in a truly Ellen fashion, somehow, I caught the edge of one of the muffin tins. It made a perfect one-and-a-half gainer through the air and landed face down on the kitchen floor.

With as much care as I could, I turned over the mess. I managed to save one liner of batter but the other five were beyond my salvation. I scooped them up and put them in the trash. Wiping up the mess off the carpet, I kept telling myself, In everything give thanks! Rejoice in the Lord always!

I finished distributing the batter after relining the muffin tins, but the batter was insufficient to fill the cups. Thinking quickly with a prayer for inspiration, I mixed up half a recipe of regular muffins and topped off each one.

Philippians 4:19 – And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

I popped the resulting masterpieces into the oven for a quick bake and went back to cleaning up the kitchen dishes, counter, and floor.

As I did these normal, mindless tasks, I meditated on what godly lesson I was learning in this. The muffin mess reminded me of how messy we can get our own lives when we dash madly at activity or act without putting God first. And yet, I thought, God can take that disaster and turn it around for His glory. Look at the people God used in the Scripture. Like me, many of them were trying to go their own way to avoid the call of God to do a task, or they hesitated because they felt unworthy or incapable. But this is what we read:

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. (NKJV)

With God surrounding us, we can accomplish what He has called us to do. So go ahead — take that leap of faith off the cliff: write that study or PresbyCan devotional; volunteer in Church school, Vacation Bible School, nursery, or outreach activity. When God leads you to it, He will see you through it.

Oh, by the way, the messed-up muffins tasted pretty good!

Prayer: Lord God, we thank and praise You for being in the midst of our messes. Thank You for walking with us wherever we go. Guide our feet in Your paths. Help us to hear Your call and Your desire for our direction. Then, Lord, please push us off the cliff of indecision to take action. In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we do pray. Amen.

Forward this devotional     Share on Facebook

About the author:

Ellen Channon <yln1655@gmail.com>
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Send your feedback to the author