From the Pulpit: “All things are possible with God”

I spent this last week preparing lefse. If you don’t know what that is, it is a yummy food made by Scandinavian cultures. You boil potatoes, mash them, mix them with butter and cream and put them through a ricer. But you are not done yet, you let this mixture sit in the fridge overnight. Then the next day you knead in the flour. Then the real work begins. You make two-inch by one-inch patties, roll them out really thin and fry them on the griddle. When you eat them, you cover them with butter and sprinkle on sugar. Why am I telling you all this?

I say all this because, while this is a simple recipe to mix, it is labor intensive to make them all the way to the end. It takes patience and a lot of elbow grease. While I was working I was thinking about the Genesis passage from chapter 3, verse 19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Things on this earth will be difficult because of our fall into sin. Even the things that we enjoy doing, making fun treats for the holiday season, are difficult.

But for God, nothing is difficult. Jeremiah 32:17 says, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

When you are in the middle of parts of your life that take a little elbow grease, remember that God is God and He can take care of anything. Take all your difficulties to God in prayer remembering that He is with you always.

As we get into this holiday season and we start to get consumed by decorations, family get-togethers, cooking, shopping, and on and on. It causes so much stress to make the season special but this season is special because God did the impossible by coming to us. Tell yourself over and over for the next two months Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”