I cannot make spiritual growth happen on my own, so I'm trusting the recipe.

Creating the Conditions for Spiritual Growth

Posted on by Michele Morin

Bread dough the color of molasses yielded to the pressure of my working fist. Fold, press, turn, repeat, and soon I lost count of how many times I had kneaded the fragrant lump. With the recipe calling for three hundred repetitions, I began to wonder—
Three hundred?
Really?
But switching to the heel of my hand, I persevered.

Eventually, I sensed a change in the texture and smooth elasticity as the gluten developed the necessary strands that would capture the gas bubbles created by the yeast, allowing the dough to stretch and expand as it rose.

Bread-makers want to create the conditions for the dough to rise, but we are completely helpless to make it happen on our own.
So we trust the recipe.
We follow the directions given.
Reading the Bible and kneading bread as purely physical acts could easily become sheer discipline, items on a never-ending checklist. However, viewed with an awareness of the invisible, life-giving force at work behind the scenes, I find that I am participating in something that is bigger than what I can see.

Wield the WordA few days after Jana Carlson invited me to write a post for Women Wielding the Word, I stood at the kitchen counter and experienced the connection between the disciplines of the Christian life and the simple, methodical, and yet crucial act of kneading bread dough. I invite you to join me over at Jana’s place for a quiet meditation at the meeting place between ordinary life and supernatural truth.

Looking forward to meeting you there!

 

Following the directions,

michele signature[1]

Subscribe to Living Our Days to get regular content delivered to your inbox. Just enter your e-mail address in the field at the top of this page.

Photo by Duminda Perera on Unsplash

Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, three daughters-in-love, and five adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

27 thoughts on “Creating the Conditions for Spiritual Growth”

  3. Faith, right? I experience the same metaphor when I knit: sort of a, hmn….is this right? I’m not so sure. And then I remind myself to just follow. And it’s amazing what comes of that trust…the resultant fabric resembling what it was meant to all along.

    Like

  5. Beautiful insight. I have not made bread for years, but I used to make it all the time. Every once in a while I wonder if I might try it again, but so far it hasn’t happened. Thank the Lord that He doesn’t stop “kneading” our lives to produce bread to feed others.

    Like

  7. What a great analogy! We need to stick with the Word and follow directions. Results will come. ❤ (And you're making me wonder if my bread would be better if I followed directions and actually got more serious about kneading as much as a recipe calls for?)

    Like

  9. I’m headed over to Jana’s blog to read the rest, Michele. What a great analogy, “the connection between the disciplines of the Christian life and the simple, methodical, and yet crucial act of kneading bread dough.” I love it when we can see the spiritual in the every day!

    Thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements!

    Like

  15. Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too!
    Come party with us at Over The Moon! Catapult your content Over The Moon! @marilyn_lesniak @EclecticRedBarn

    Like

  16. Congratulations! Your post was my feature pick at #OverTheMoon this week. Each Hostess displays their own features so be sure to visit me on Sunday evening and to see your feature! I invite you to leave more links to be shared and commented upon. Please don’t forget to add your link numbers or post title so we can be sure to visit!

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.