To Make A Cup of Coffee

 

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n a few hours, I will be in our Sunday School department to prepare the coffee maker for that all-important-and-oh-so-necessary first cup of coffee.  Funny, I never used to be a real coffee drinker but since moving to Texas and entering the ministry, I have consumed more coffee than I care to think about.  I’m not sure what the connection is between ministry and coffee but the close tie that binds Texans to their coffee mugs is just part and parcel of living in the Southwest.

 

As I was saying, in a few hours, I will enter our department, open the cabinet, remove the coffee from its hiding place, fill the coffee maker with water, place the filter inside its holder, measure out the appropriate amount of coffee, start the machine, and wait.  What a guy has to go through just to get a cup of coffee! 

 

Have you ever considered the close parallel between a coffee maker and the Christian life?  Now, you may think I have completely lost my senses by even suggesting that coffee and our relationship with God have anything at all in common, but I assure you they do!  So, let’s open up God’s word and see what He says about the trials and temptations He uses to bring about patience in our lives so that we may be perfected into the image of His son, Jesus Christ. 

 

The book of James is a fascinating and wonderful book in the New Testament.  James was the half-brother of Jesus, and he wastes no time in addressing the reason for trials, tests, hard bumps, and the other not-so-fun-stuff of the Christian life.  In James 1:2-4 we read, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” 

 

This passage of scripture tells us that trials and temptations have but one goal and that is to work patience, or perseverance, in our lives. In turn, patience has its own work to accomplish, and that work is to make us mature and complete so that we will not lack anything.  This is where the coffee pot analogy comes in.  If I simply place water and coffee into the machine but never push the start button it is a foregone conclusion that I will never drink coffee.  Once that button is pushed, an entire chain of events is set into motion that finally results in coffee.  Water is heated and is poured over the grounds.  Slowly it drips through taking on the flavor of the dark powder through which it flows.  Only when all of the hot water passes through the coffee grinds does the machine alert me that I can have a cup of coffee. 

 

The same process occurs in our walk with the Lord.  God does not leave us alone sitting in the coffee pot anticipating we will grow into spiritual maturity on our own.  Nowhere in the Scriptures do we see men or women who became instantly mature by just adding water! No, in every instance, God worked in their lives, teaching them, growing them, prodding them forward, and pouring on the hot water He knew was necessary so their lives and examples would be commensurate with His will. 

 

Wherever you are in your walk with God today, I pray that you will learn the lesson of the coffee pot.  Whatever situations you are facing in life, know that God has a plan for you, that He is always working to bring about your conformity to Jesus Christ, and that He will not rest until we are perfected, that is completed, in Him.  Now, how about that first cup of coffee today?  Are you ready for it?