IM: WHUSDJ
CURRENT SHOW
As the Polka Turns
I was going through some websites a few days ago…and came across an ad for a stage play by producer Jermaine Smith. The title of the play was “Cooking in Yesterday’s Grease.” I read that and had to pause and just sit back in thought. Let me share a little bit of what had hit me when I read that play title.
We all know we’re supposed to spend time daily in God’s word, and each day spend time in God’s presence through praise, prayer, and worship. But honestly, it can get hard to set time aside each day. We’re constantly bombarded with deadlines, events, people, things to do, etc. And I know there are times, at least for me, in which I tell myself, “aww, I’ll be good for today, I spent some time with the Lord yesterday or last night, I’ll be straight now. It can wait.” We can easily get caught in the false reality that yesterday’s prayer, yesterday’s praise, yesterday’s anointing, yesterday’s worship can cover you for today and for days to come. Although this may have some truth in it, that should not be our mindset.
Our mindset should be, “Lord, here you’ve blessed me with a brand new day! I want to know more about you today! More than I knew yesterday.”
Now what happens when you cook in used grease? The food doesn’t taste as good as if it was fresh oil. In my house, when we fry, we do sometimes use the oil a 2nd time. Sure, the food still tastes great when cooked in that oil. But if you continue to use the same oil day after day, the food will gradually start to lessen in pleasantness. There comes a point in which you just need to get some fresh oil. It’s the same way when we try to run off yesterday’s praise or Monday’s anointing for the whole week. I know from personal experience, as the week goes on and I haven’t spent time with the Lord daily, my joy gradually get’s less, my peace gets disturbed, things that shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally stress me out are just huge problems in my life now. In other words, Life starts to lose its pleasantness. That Joy that God promised us in his word is hard to find. The peace that passes all understanding is lost in our distress. The faith that can move mountains has dwindled.
I challenge you to seek God’s face EVERYDAY as if it was your first time. When Jesus prayed the "Our father" Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, He said “Give us THIS day, our DAILY BREAD.” In other words, give us, what we need today Lord. Give us what we need to make it through the trials and temptations, and stressors that we will face TODAY. Yesterday is gone. I need a fresh touch, a fresh word from you, some fresh manna. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, God commanded them to only gather the manna needed for today; they were not to store any for tomorrow. God said “each day I will send fresh manna.” If the people tried to store the manna it turned into worms. Now I’m not saying your praise or word from today will rot, the point I’m making is that we should seek God’s face daily.
Seek to know more of God. Seek to understand him in a newer and deeper way each day. Use fresh oil, and don’t cook in yesterday’s grease.