Cherienettles.net

One of our Sunday School Teachers - Cherie Nettles, invites us all to enjoy her new website and weekly devotions. See below for this weeks devotion - click on her website for more information.


http://www.cherienettles.net/Devotions.html



My Easy-Bake Oven

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

By Cherie Nettles

The first time I saw it advertised on television, I knew I had to have it! I’d never thought about being a master baker but this I wanted – an Easy-Bake Oven. Chocolate cake any time I desired. I quickly penciled Easy-Bake Oven at the top of my Christmas list. On Christmas morning I raced to the den to find my own Easy-Bake Oven. I couldn’t stand it. I squealed, “Let’s bake now!” My mother asked me to wait, but I couldn’t. I darted to the kitchen to whip up my masterpiece.

My brother helped me while I carefully measured the final ingredient, water; well the only ingredient, to the powdery mixture. I poured the chocolate paste into the small pan and pushed it into the oven. I pushed too hard. The pan slipped off the rack, and the chocolate ran down the inside of the oven. I finally retrieved the pan of burnt cake. Determined that it was edible I offered some to my brother. He ran. I pierced the flattened cake with a fork and it cracked. I put the “cake” in my mouth. “Yuck,” I spit. I unplugged my Easy-Bake Oven, packed it back in the box and never played with it again, and today, I’m still not a master baker, but I can order cakes from the store.

Have you ever had plans not turn out the way you expected? That’s what happened with my Easy-Bake Oven. It wasn’t so easy. I could’ve learned to bake had I stuck to my plan, but being a little over zealous, having a shaky hand and a yucky taste in my mouth put a quick end to my plans. Life is sometimes the same way. Sometimes our lives are fluffy and sweet while others times the layers of life seem “burnt,” frail, and thin. It is in these times that we must trust that God’s grace is sufficient.

At the age of seventeen, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. My doctor’s prognosis was that by the age of twenty-one, I would be confined to a wheelchair suffering with chronic pain. Not my plan A. I’d dreamed of college, marrying and having children. Rheumatoid did not fit, but I couldn’t stuff this back in the Easy-Bake Oven box. I had to persevere, but I didn’t know how, until God gently led me to 2 Corinthians 12:9. I realized that I didn’t have to stuff this disease in a box. I could surrender my weakness to Jesus and His power would be perfected there.

Twenty-eight-years later, I still have Arthritis, however, my dreams have come true. I married my prince charming, we have two beautiful children and I can walk. Today, if you’re suffering or experiencing a trial (maybe an economic loss in our unstable economy,) persevere in God’ grace because it is sufficient, and don’t stuff your dreams in a box: because only Easy-Bake Ovens should be stuffed into them.

Dear God, thank you for your grace that rises up in my life. A-men.



Questions to Ponder:

1-Today, how is God speaking to you through 2 Corinthians 12:9?

2-Have you ever endured a trial that caused you to question whether God had your best interest at heart?

3-What did God teach you about His grace during that time, or perhaps when the trial ended?

4- Reflecting upon your answers to questions 1-3, WWID – What will you do?

Blessings to you all today, and I wanted to tell each of you … I thank our God every time I think of you! Love you all bunches! c