I wonder what would happen if your life was reduced. I wonder what would last. I wonder what would “cook off”.
Have you ever made a sauce? One of the key steps is to allow the sauce to reduce. When it reduces, the flavors grow more intense, and the texture thickens. It’s a key step in the process of sauce making. If you skip this step, then the sauce will be runny and not as flavorful.
I worry that far too many of us skip the reducing stage of our spiritual “cooking”…if you will.
That important part of life where you allow the Lord to give and take away. It’s the step where He builds true and lasting character. He’s interested in maturing us…this is that step.
When life is reduced…when all of the wastes of time are gone, then what?
Then we must allow our heavenly Father to adjust the seasoning of our heart and mind. We allow Him to add whatever He wants to add. We trust Him to adjust our “flavor”.
Our urge will be to fill all the empty space as quick as possible because it’s uncomfortable. But I implore you not to do so.
Be empty for a time. Feel that emptiness and become comfortable with it. See the holiness of the emptiness. Then invite God to fill every space. Every nook and cranny. Let Him flood you with every good thing He has stored up for you.
Embrace His filling. It’s quite different from the world.
When God fills us, we become lighter. It’s a holy heaviness…the heaviness that feels light. Isn’t God a wonder?!
Would you surrender to a slow simmer in your life? A time during which you wait with the intention of being changed. A chance for God to highlight the waste in your life and a chance to allow Him to remove those things. Then after the reducing is finished, enjoy the empty as you wait to be filled.
It’s a process that many resist and some will flat out refuse. But none regret.
Who do you want to be?
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
365 Days in the Presence 