The Most Divine Recipes

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, my faithful and fun Back Porch friends! Many of you may remember a post I wrote last summer where I told y’all I was struggling in the kitchen. Baking in my new high-elevation home was not going according to plan.

My most divine recipes were not working. I wish I had taken photos of some of the epic failures so you could feel the heartbreak with me. They didn’t look appetizing, smell enticing, or taste right.

A few fun facts about altitude:

Did you know the boiling temperature of water is different in the mountains? Or that thinner air causes bakery items to rise more quickly? (And subsequently fall dramatically?) After wasting time and ingredients, I turned to the internet for suggestions.

I experimented to no avail. Eventually I reached out to you all to see if you had any tried-and-true high-altitude recipes for baked goods. I didn’t receive any which, on hindsight, makes sense because most people live closer to sea level.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My zucchini bread turns out amazing in lower elevations. If anyone is interested in this passed down family recipe, let me know. (Photo taken a few years ago.)

I finally broke down and bought a high-altitude cookbook. And let me tell you – it has been a godsend! My first bite into a soft, moist, sweet blueberry muffin nearly made me cry. I had feared I’d have to grow accustomed to dry, crumbly, volcano-shaped baked goods for as long as I lived here.

The new divine recipes made me think.

The right recipes for my location made all the difference. I’m sure if I took my new high-elevation cooking instructions and tried them at sea level, it would be a whole other kind of disaster. (Is it strange that I want to try, just to see what sort of chaos it would create?)

But here is what I realized –

Sometimes I try the wrong recipes for my appetites outside of the kitchen as well. I want to satisfy cravings in other areas of my life. I desire some of the sweet stuff I see other people enjoying.

It is typically success of some kind. Accolades, money, adoration, beauty… these things call to me more often than I’d like. I apply my own recipes, attempting to cook up what I want.

The problem is, while recipes for such treats work for some people, in some places, they might not be correct for me, where I am. All they produce for me is a dry and crumbling mess that barely resembles anything I was working for. In a word, disappointment.

God has the most divine recipes.

But do you know what? God has a plan for me. He has a recipe, if you will, laid out for my life. He has already done the calculations, and it is right for who, where, and how He has me.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’.”

Jeremiah 29:11, 12

If I submit to His recipe, He will ensure I am baked to perfection. I will turn out exactly as He plans. When the timer goes off on my life, He will take me out of this oven I’m in (we all feel the heat, right?) and add the final touches to present me, faultless, to God our Father.

“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.”

Hebrews 10:14

5 reasons God’s recipes are the most divine:

Just like my high-altitude cookbook has recipes for the height at which I live, Jesus calls me to live higher. His instructions meet me there. If I adhere to His recipe for my life,

1. I will not fall.

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”

Psalm 37:23, 24

2. I will not boil over.

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

Isaiah 26:3

3. I will not be dry.

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

John 7:38

4. I will not burn (out.)

“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had…”

Isaiah 43:1, 2

5. I will not be disappointed (or disappointing).

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

Psalm 32:8

My dear friend, for what are you striving? Do your efforts continue to fall flat? Maybe the recipes you’re following are not right for you.

Will you join me today in asking God for, and applying to our lives, His most Divine recipes?

“The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”

Psalm 33:11

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