Walking With God"

    I recently realized why I find myself frustrated at times in my walk with God. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. It's simple, really. The problem is that God apparently likes to stroll and, for the most part, I'm not a stroller by nature. "Do you want to run around with me today?" I sometimes ask my wife before I start out on errands. Running around -that's my style.

    I like to run around and get things done. I want to make things happen. My Father, on the other hand, refuses to be rushed by His impatient boy. I really identify with what one man I recently read had to say on the subject: "I feel like running, but life is on a stroll. That's how God works." "Yep, I'm with you a hundred percent," I thought as I read his words.

    The irony of it all is that I, a man who constantly teaches people how to rest in Christ, still struggles with this. I even wrote a book on the subject (The Godward Gaze). Maybe I'll go back and read that book again.

    I love the practice of contemplative prayer each morning. It soothes my soul, calming my anxious thoughts and bringing me into the awareness of basking in Love too big to explain or even understand. If I let that early morning time slip, I feel the difference all through the day. It's not a legalistic practice for me. It's something I do because I love being loved and to be honest, as much or more than that, I love feeling loved by my heavenly Father.

    I want to learn to live in that place of awareness all day. Sometimes I do pretty well with it, then at others I take on the role of deity and try to manage every detail of my own life with perfection and exact precision. I work to make life fit my schedule and that's when I start to slip.

    Do you experience this type problem in your life? I don't think I'm alone in this. Patience isn't one of the top virtues in the life of most Christians. It has always been a challenge for people of faith. That's why a child named Ishmael was born. That's why there was once an Apostle named Matthias that nobody ever heard about again. Believe me, we're not alone.

    What's the answer? It's to keep learning the lesson, again and again if necessary. When we find ourselves rushed, anxious and tapping our fingernails on the table while we wait for God to hurry and catch up, we need to stop. Stop and realize what we're doing, then acknowledge our hyperactive frenzy before our Father. Yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and affirm the truth that we don't control life in any way. We must intentionally choose to relax our grip on our circumstances and slow down our pace again.

    Life will be much easier on us all when we learn once and for all that we won't make God run. He's going to do what He's going to do, so we might as well slow down and enjoy the walk.

- Steve McVey
Grace Walk Ministries
www.gracewalk.org

TODAY'S DEVOTIONAL SPONSOR:

DAILY SMILE:

Robbing A Bank

Dumb Criminals

Submitted by barber7796

The bank robber enters the bank with his gun drawn in plain site.

He walks to the middle of the lobby, pauses for a few seconds, turns around a couple of times, and then approaches a teller.

Then scratching his temple with the gun barrel, he says to the teller, "Do you ever enter a room and forget why?"

Grandma’s Southern-Style Chicken n’ Dumplings

Ingredients

To Cook Chicken And Make Broth:

1 whole chicken, thawed and cleaned (remove and discard giblets from cavity)
½ cup carrots, celery, and onion (OPTIONAL-to flavor the chicken broth)
Water to completely cover chicken in a large stockpot.

To Make The Dumplings:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 heaping Tablespoons vegetable shortening
½ cup HOT water
½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

To finish soup:

Two large chicken bouillon cubes
1 Tablespoon butter
¼ cup water mixed with 2 Tablespoons flour
Salt and Pepper, to taste (approx. 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper)

Directions

Put the chicken and the veggies (if using) in a large stockpot. Cover completely with water. Bring to a quick boil, then continue cooking chicken for one hour.
When done, remove chicken to large bowl to cool. Strain broth to remove leftover veggies or other particles. Return broth to stockpot.
Once chicken is cool, remove skin, then cut chicken into bite sized pieces. (At this point I divide the chicken pieces in half, and freeze half for use in another meal).
Add chicken pieces (approx. 2½ cups) back into chicken broth. Heat the chicken and broth back up to boiling. Add bouillon cubes, salt and pepper (to taste).
While chicken is coming to a boil, make the dumplings. In a large bowl, using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the shortening and salt into the cup of flour, until shortening is the size of small peas.
Add ½ cup HOT water and ½ cup, plus 2 Tablespoons of flour to the mixture. Stir and work the mixture until a soft dough ball forms (firm enough to roll out). Divide dough into 3 equal sized balls, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Generously flour a work surface. Roll each dough ball out (one at a time), sprinkling with flour (if necessary) to keep dough from sticking to work surface. Roll out to about the size of a large pie crust (roll out thin). Cut dough into strips about an inch wide using a pizza cutter or knife. Repeat process for remaining dough balls.
Drop dumplings a couple at a time into hot boiling chicken/broth mixture until all have been added to pot; add butter, and continue cooking.
Make a slurry by mixing ¼ cup water with 2 large Tablespoons flour. Stir well to combine, then add to soup pot, and stir well. (this helps to thicken broth a bit).
Cook an additional 10 minutes on high to fully cook dumplings.
Taste test broth, and add additional salt and pepper, if desired.
Ladle hot soup into bowls, serve, and enjoy (especially with crusty french bread on the side!)