Expectant Prayers ®

What comes to your mind when I say, "BEANS"?   Beans, beans the musical fruit; the more you eat the more you... OR maybe when we were kids and exclaimed in excitement, "COOL BEANS"!  Maybe you think about the crazy art your kids brought home from Sunday school with beans glued all over a paper plate....or maybe about the "16 Bean" dry sack of beans you have soaking on your stove...or when your brother tried to shove one up your nose!  Well, today I have a story for you all about beans.   

I was up at 4:30am Sunday morning with a million and one things running through my mind.  I got up when the baby needed to be fed and then it seemed like the “think” switch turned on, flooding my mind with random thoughts.  Sermon topics, song lyrics, grocery lists, what I needed to get for the kids Easter outfits… all bombarding my mind like little gnats to fly paper.  I don’t know what gene it is that causes my mind to be so active all the time, but my Dad has it; my sister and I inherited it!  Thanks for sharing, Dad!  

Now I have to stop and say that many times I will wake up in the middle of the night to pray for someone or because there was something the Lord was trying to tell me.  Those times never bother me.   Unfortunately, the other morning was not that way at all. Luckily, Daylight Savings jumped me ahead an hour or I would have been in for a longer morning than what I endured!   I would have gone back to bed, but I was afraid I would oversleep and miss morning church service!

At 5am I decided to go ahead and “get out of bed and stumble to the kitchen to pour myself a cup of ambition” (as Dolly Parton’s famous Workin’9 to 5 song says).   When I got there, I relished the thought that I would actually be able to make myself a good cup of Vanilla Biscotti Coffee.  Ahhh.  I took the bag out of the fridge and opened it.  The instant aroma seemed to perk me up a bit.  I smiled in contentment…that is until I looked down and remembered that my husband bought the BEANS instead of ground coffee.  Oh, joy.  Disappointed, I reprimanded myself for not thinking of it before I took it out of the fridge.  I noticed it on Saturday, but didn’t have time to do anything about it.  There was no way I could grind up the beans without waking up the entire household.     Why did he have to go and buy stupid old BEANS?   They sat there in the bag staring back at me, taunting me with the wafts of vanilla. 

What was I going to do with a bag of BEANS?   

The only person who has use for a bunch of beans is Jack (as in Jack and the Bean Stalk) and his were special.  Nothing was special about my old beans. I had to put the beans back in the fridge and use what was available… plain old coffee. 

I guess when life hands you a lemon, you start making lemonade.  In this case; when life hands you a bag of coffee beans, you start making coffee????????

You know, the church is a lot like that bag of beans...

1.) We all have the potential of being productive and useful in the Lord’s kingdom… heaven knows that we’ve been taught until we’re sick of it that everyone has a “purpose”.   It’s high time we all get out of the bag and start being used!  It must be frustrating to the Lord when we aren’t used.   Just like the fig tree that wasn’t bearing any figs; Jesus cursed it because it wasn’t bearing fruit.   We don’t want to just sit there like coffee beans in the sack.

2.) We also need to realize that we can't be lazy about the Lord's work.  We want coffee and we want it already made- just like a lot of people want to go to church and not put forth any effort.  We lift our cup and expect the Lord to fill it up- always being served but never serving.  We have to put our hand to the grinding mill and grind those beans!  It takes work if we want to see results. 

BTW- that reminds me of the verse:  "There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other will be left."  Luke 17:35 (Amplified)   WILL WE BE READY WHEN JESUS COMES?

3.) You don’t use just one bean for a “full bodied flavor”.  God doesn’t use just one person or type of person in the church.  There are many gifts given to each one, yet we cannot operate in the “full bodied function” of the church – there needs to be a blending together. 

4.)  Just like I had to settle for plain old coffee this morning, God will use what’s available.  If you aren’t willing to be used, He won’t force you.  Just think, though, how the church is missing out because of the absence of your flavor!  I’m sure the beans (just like us) think they are just plain old beans, but nonetheless, in God’s hands we’re made into something great.   Yeah, those ARE special beans.

5.)  Under the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to release a powerful “aroma” to the Lord and to the world as well.  As others “drink in” they will be “energized” with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

I don’t know about you, but I’ll never look at my morning coffee the same way again!

 

 

JOKE:  If the Lord had a beverage in the morning,

would it be tea or coffee?  

Answer:  The Bible says “He-brews”.

 

True Funny:  Zeke often comes into the kitchen in the morning and asks for coffee.  When I say “NO”, he’ll fake a cough and say, “See, Mommy, I have a cough”.

Apparently he thinks it’s “cough-ey” (for coughs).