My husband, Wayne, has been on the road a lot through the years, and the one thing he loves to bring home is...sauce. Chipotle sauce, raspberry chocolate sauce, honey pecan sauce, mesquite BBQ sauce....you name it! If it's a sauce, we've undoubtedly eaten it! I have dipped, dunked, swirled, coated, injected, basted, infused just about everything I can think of. And, to be honest, I don't really like sauces. I love "spreads" (think Nutella, nut butter of any sort, good cranberry relish on a turkey sandwich), but sauces aren't for me. I want to taste the flavor of the chicken itself - enhance it? Sure! Smother it? No way!
Have you ever had a piece of burnt toast, scraped off the blackest bit, and then put your jam on the top to eat it? You can still taste the essence of the burn! I happen to be completely OK with that. But the point is that once that burned flavor is achieved, it's very difficult to mask.
In general, I'm not very good at masking anything. If I'm happy, I'm very happy. If I'm sad, I'm very sad. If I need to sleep, I better go ahead and do it because I'm only tormenting the people around me if I keep my grumpy self in the room. But I know people who can move from one situation to the next without changing their outward demeanor. I wish I could. When it comes to things of God, though, we just can't fake what's in our innermost beings. There's no way to counsel someone when I have nothing at all on the inside. I can't scrape off the complacency of my heart and quickly cover it with a few good scriptures. Of course, the Word of God is powerful and will do its job, but the full potential of the moment in ministry is lost if I am not prepared.
2Timothy 4:2 reminds us to "be instant in season and out of season." This means that we should have the Word of God and His precious Spirit in us, ready at all times for whatever comes our way. There is so much to be said for a daily time with God. Reading the Bible, talking to the Lord. These things should be such integral parts of our lives that we are prepared for every moment - and not "hot" some days and "cold" on others. We should be filled with the presence of God so that no "masking of flavors" will be required when someone needs prayer.
If you like your sauce, put it on! But don't hide the flavor of the thing you're eating! If it's chicken, for goodness sakes, let us taste the chicken!
Wayne's favorite sauce: Chipotle BBQ. He will put it on anything from steak to scrambled eggs. I kid you not. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the whole chipotle flavor.
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