The LORD is My Instant-Pot---I shall not want...

The miracle appliance...Instant Pot

No doubt you have heard of the latest and greatest--the miracle machine called the Instant Pot. This device uses heat and pressure to cook delicious food quickly and easily. It is a slow cooker, pressure cooker (you can cook on high or low pressure, or choose specific pressure setting like poultry or meat/stew), rice cooker-steamer, saute'-browner, yogurt maker, and warmer all in one. It can cook things still frozen in record time, or slow cook as needed. You can use actual dishes inside the pot or tin foil to separate some ingredients from others. It has the ability to heat food to temperatures that will literally kill harmful bacteria, and actually enhances the nutrition of veggies by locking the good stuff into the moisture inside the pot. It is the best thing since sliced bread and then some.

Just don't count on me to use one. I don't want it! So much positive feedback, and I do mean food back--will ruin my girlish figure. I might actually have to prepare produce produced for every kind of meeting or gathering around. Now that is just too much pressure. (Ha!)

You are thinking about now, why would you NOT want such an incredible cooking machine? Well, I am not so sure I really believe this thing is the miracle it claims to be. How can it really live up to all its promises? It could very well disappoint me and my visions of grandeur about food! It might be a colossal waste of money. No other pots can do these types of exploits.

So what that others like it and give testimony to its greatness? I'm glad they found something that works for them, but I've never been willing to put faith in these so called miracle cookers.

So what that it could make me a better and healthier eater? And how can it really change my cooking disabilities? I don't want to chance it. It costs too much!

Somehow it brings to mind God and how I first came to hear about Him in a little country church where I was introduced to the 23rd Psalm. "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. I thought to myself, If He is such a great shepherd, why don't we want Him? And then to brag about all His wonderful attributes, after clearly admitting He isn't what you want. I just couldn't figure it out, so I dismissed it as not for me at the ripe old age of 8.

Thankfully, He didn't leave me in that state. He continued to reveal more of my need and more of His power to meet that need. He created hunger in my soul to be filled with what He could provide and changed from the person I was into His image. I finally gave in and He began to show me what He could do. Over time, He knew just when to add pressure and when to lighten up; when to use high heat and when to warm slowly. And even after all these years, I still get sick of the person I tend to be in myself and so I willingly continue to submit myself by hook or by crook to the pressure of the Lover of my soul, precisely because I have learned it is good and safer to jump into His stream. Like a divine Instant Pot, He can and will bring me to completion within His precision timing (Instant for the One whose day is like a thousand of our years; a lifetime for me!).

People tend to dismiss God for some of the same reservations I have for this super supper maker: an innate lack of trust, thinking He is like people that have failed us (which is nearly everyone), counting the cost as too great--especially if He makes me give up the things I love. How can He be better than so many other religions tried and found wanting. I'm not good enough to become like Him. And that one is where you are absolutely,100% right. None of us are good enough or powerful enough or pure enough to become like Him. Only He can change us into the image of His beautiful Son. Only He can produce a fully prepared us to His Father some day at the great Feast!

It was much later I learned that "I shall not want..." meant that He would continue to fill me full and I would lack nothing. That is why it says The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want! A semi-colon made all the difference. Think about that promise. Hunger is met. Each time we feel it. What would it feel like to really be filled? How hungry are you for peace and joy and purity here and the kingdom of heaven to come? Maybe it is time for you to try out Father God. Let Him know you want to let Him have you.

Meanwhile, my excuses for not using the Instant Pot have become thin. I may just try out this miracle appliance--it might just be what it claims and I'm feeling hungry!