Sizzling Pancakes

  Are You Like a Sizzling Pancake or a Hot Mess?

by

Karen S. Roberts

 

One Sunday morning the thought of making pancakes popped into my head.  It’s not that I was hungry, and there certainly wasn’t time to make pancakes before leaving for church.  But I was picturing a scoop of pancake batter sitting on an electric grill.

“Oh,” I thought, “God is trying to show me something.”  I’ve learned that His messages often begin with a mental picture of something, especially if the picture grows and develops. So I asked, “Lord, what are you saying?”  Then I waited.

In my mind I saw the batter spreading out over the hot griddle.  It started to sizzle, firming up, with little bubbles showing on top.  It had to be flipped so that the other other side could cook.  If it had been left there too long, it would have burned.  But when it was perfectly cooked through and lightly browned on each side, in my imagination I removed it from the grill.  I imagined my perfect pancake fulfilling it’s purpose.  Yum!

“Ok, Lord, what is this about?”

It came to me that often we are like a blob of wet gooey batter.  We aren’t formed yet into what God wants us to be.  We may be spreading out like batter spreads out on a flat surface.  But on our own, we don’t shape up into any God given purpose.

Pancake batter on a cold pan isn’t something I’d want to eat.  It takes heat to turn it into a pancake.  God turns the heat on in our lives, sometimes allowing us to go through tough times, in order to make us who He wants us to be.  We have to simmer in certain situations, trusting that He is the Master Cook.  He’s making us into something scrumptious in His sight.

But heat by itself will only burn the batter, leaving a mess.  It also takes a little oil.  As the batter simmers in the oil, it becomes what it’s meant to be.

That reminds me of the “oil” of the Holy Spirit.  Without us allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us through our difficulties and circumstances, we will become a hot mess.

The combination of the trials of life and the work of God’s Spirit within us results in something beautiful.  We will fulfill His perfect purpose for our lives.

Psalm 90:17 says that we are to let the beauty of God be upon us, letting Him establish the work of our hands for us.  That work of God within us begins at the time that we pray to put our trust in Jesus and to believe that He took the punishment for our sins that we deserve.  That work of beautifying us then continues throughout our life.

So, do you want God to make you into a perfect pancake?

Hmmm, thinking about pancakes is making me hungry.  I wonder if my husband would like some pancakes…