The Missing Ingredient

Have you ever come to the end of a recipe just to find that your dish seems to be missing a certain something and you can’t quite put your finger on what it needs? It’s surely frustrating when this happens in the kitchen but when it happens in our souls it can be devastating! I have definitely found myself in a place where I knew something was missing. I was getting the recipe of life right but I couldn't shake the painful ache that my life just didn’t feel like I thought it would and then to top it off I felt completely guilty for even feeling this way...because my life was awesome. Great husband, child, job, friends, spent time in God’s word, went to church, served in church. Either I was extremely ungrateful or something was seriously missing…

I think many of us have been here. We feel unwhole when God’s word tells us we will be made complete and it’s frustrating when that doesn't match up. Sometimes we know what we need to do in order to be refreshed and restored but what do we do when everything looks good, everything is right, but there is an aching conviction in our hearts pointing to our life saying “this just isn't it…”?? We feel dead, or in other words flat, and we don’t know how to rise up.

To rise is to move. To be able to move means there is a source of life. And I truly believe when we get to a place where what we are doing seems right but we still feel lost we are missing one very important ingredient, the ingredient that activates the life in us.

When I think about having a life that is rising and full it reminds me of bread (bare with me, I promise I have a point). When bread doesn't rise and lays flat, it too is missing an  ingredient. This ingredient is called leaven. When leaven is added to the other ingredients that make up the bread (dough, water, etc.) it activates life in the mixture so that the bread can rise into it’s most abundant form. The dictionary says that leaven produces an influence of transformation and when the leaven mixes with the other ingredients it’s called fermentation. Fermentation is a place of excitement and movement or the place where things are stirred up! Wow, I wish it was as easy as swallowing some leaven to fix feeling incomplete, dead, or numb because isn’t this exactly what we want when we feel as if we are spiritually deflated. We want to be stirred up, growing, rising to new levels, just simply….feeling alive!

So what would make us feel alive again and cause us to rise?! There are passions in us that need to be sparked again so what is our life source in these desolate times? Let’s look at some scriptures...John 1:4 which states, “For IN HIM WAS LIFE” or Psalm 36:9 which states “For with you is the FOUNTAIN OF LIFE” I think here we can know that there is a greater life source for us. A life source that transforms us, causes us to grow, causes us to rise, and gives us life abundantly. And that life source is none other that our Heavenly Father.

“But Kira, I spend time with God every day.” So did I and I still fell into a season of depression. But the revelation that led to my turnaround was that I was not letting God be active in my life, I wasn’t spending enough time in real relationship with him, or in other words communication with him. I can say that Sally is my friend but if I never talk to her or let her talk to me...is she truly my friend? So I can say that I am being dependent on and moved by God but if I am not in communication with him am I really letting him activate life in me?

We have to be careful because, let’s be honest, everyone loves a good tortilla! And flat bread can still taste good and getting all the other ingredients in our life right can still feel good. But a good tortilla won’t sustain you or fill you up! We have to wake up to the reality that we have to open our mouths and cry out to God. And I mean that when I say open our mouths. It took me praying out loud, praising him, repenting to him, listening to him, opening my heart up so that he can do a work inside of me to find freedom in joy again. Our relationship with him has to be real and when you mix the real God, the leaven, with your other disciplines and good deeds we cause fermentation in our spirit and soul. This is when we experience transformation. This is when we experience an abundant life.

It’s a devastating place to find yourself in a state like this, no one wants to feel incomplete, but hold tight to God’s promise of abundant life because although the emptiness is what feels real and tangible right now, God’s truth is true reality. Look at HOW you are spending your time with him. Make sure you are leaning on him, TALKING to him, and allowing him room to transform you. He’s ready to bring fermentation to all the good in your life, ready to stir you up and cause you to rise but you  have to let him in the mixture!

If you still feel stuck after reading this post don’t be afraid to comment or message me. I’d be happy to give you some ideas on practices and disciplines that can open the door to accessing a real relationship with God. He loves you the same and freedom is in your reach!