Almonds for Breakfast ©

I have read that 17 – 22 almonds provide a deliciously fulfilling snack. This snack totals approximately 100 calories and is full of essential fatty acids that have proven to aide in weight loss. Let me suggest that you add twenty almonds to your morning yogurt, or just spread them out through your slowly savored morning coffee and Bible reading. What a way to start the day! Ummmm. I am a pretty practical woman, so it seems to make sense to me that if you have them, you should have them for breakfast. Shouldn't we learn to do good things early? Evidently, Jesus thought so.

“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a rod of almond.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” Jeremiah 1:11-12

Almonds blossom early. In fact, the almond blossoms are first seen in late winter when nothing else is budding. In Hebrew it is known as the ‘hasty tree'. When Jeremiah answered the Lord by telling Him that he saw an almond branch, the Lord congratulated him on his first right answer to the morning's quiz. In their previous mental conversation, the Lord had already told Jeremiah that He knew him before he was born, and that He had appointed him a prophet. Jeremiah responded by telling Him that He must be mistaken. After all, Jeremiah was only a youth and could not speak. God, being God and All, corrected him by telling him that he was the one that had it wrong, and that he was not to say “I am only a youth” again, for God was sending him to speak. Whatever God commanded, Jeremiah was to speak.

After having missed the first mental essay of the morning's quiz, I am not sure if Jeremiah verbalized the 2 nd part, or just thought very loudly: “No. That's not possible! I am afraid!” But I know that God did correct Him. God said, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am going with you and I am going to deliver you.”

And with that, God must have realized that poor Jeremiah surely would get question #3 wrong, if He did not step in and make some adjustments. (Jeremiah 1:1-8) (O.K. that might not be too theological, but many times that is the way God has had to work with me.)

God touched Jeremiah's mouth, and told him that He had set him over nations and kingdoms, that very day, to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, and to build and to plant. He let him know that no matter how devastating the situation was at the moment, He was the ‘rod' that could bring the correction or the change, and that He was ‘ever present' and ‘right early'. (Jeremiah 1:9-10)

Now something happened! Something changed! From the very beginning of this morning's quiz to the end of verse 10, God took a scared to death, hungry and in need of breakfast, (S.Brown's version…after all, his thinking was muddled) insecure, young man, touched Him, and infused him with new life, faith and vision. When God spoke question #3: “What do you see?” Jeremiah barely got the words “I see an almond branch” out of his mouth when God shocked him with: “Right! For I am watching over my word to perform it.”

Jeremiah, like us, was probably more than a little stumped by God's enthusiasm and His reasoning at this point. However, God was speaking times and seasons, and that is a language that most of us get a little hesitant about. When times are dark, seasons are long, and some days simply seem unbearable, it is not uncommon for our knees to buckle, our voices to quiver, and our answers to God's question: “What do you see” to be more than a little shaky. After all, sometimes, it is hard to see, or to understand anything in these seasons. We may know God is the answer, and we certainly know He is ever present and was there from the beginning, but getting our spirits to recognize, and our actions to reflect what our minds know requires our response to His touch. When the circumstances of our everyday life loom louder than life itself, we must admit, our thinking can become clouded and the very infallible truth which we have based our life upon, can seem to be obscure.

Until God touches us! Until we go to Him with all of our insecure and muddled thinking and He touches us. I am reminded of the line of a song: “Just one touch from the Master's great hand is like rain on a dry and thirsty land.” And what truth that is. It just takes one touch, one bit of wisdom, understanding, or revelation, one moment of silencing the din around us, one prayer, or one encounter with His love and we, like Jeremiah, will “see well”. We will see and understand that whatever needs corrected or changed is in His power. And He will assure us that He is watching over His word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12)

I had one of those moments while sitting in the upstairs bedroom of a pastor's home in Northern New York State last weekend. It was 1:30 in the morning. I was preparing to preach the next morning, when God dropped a thought into my heart: “God is not dead!” Yes, I knew that. But the next thought He dropped was even louder: “And God's bride is not dead either!”

And yes, if we think about it, we know that too. However, it is not what is easily seen or readily recognized in the world in which we live. And it is also not how most of us live. How quickly dark nights, long seasons, unbearable days, lost jobs, failing finances, government that cannot govern itself, or the leaders who don't know where they are going, cloud our thinking and rob our vision, or make the truth seem obscure. Almost daily we are hearing of another proposed bill that would infringe upon our prayer life, our speech, our doctrine, the life of the unborn or marriage itself. The reality that darkness seeks to obscure the Son has hit my home, as well as yours, more than once lately.

So what do you see? I see that God is not dead, and hallelujah, His bride is not dead either. She is vitally united with Him. She is covered with covenant blessings. She is forgiven, saved, healed and restored. She has been permitted to dress in white. And she already walks with Him in triumph, and will one day rise to reign with Him! She is forever safe under the shelter of His wings! She will awake and arise and come up out of the wilderness, in strength and beauty, leaning on her beloved!

Yes, Church, do not fear. Remember, it was our God who made a ‘distinction between' the cattle of His people and those of the enemy. If we are vitally united with Him, we know that when it got dark in Egypt it was light in Goshen ! Go ahead and sit down to a breakfast for champions. Break out the almonds! Our God is watching over His word to perform it! ©

Susan Chapman Brown

www.Arisingtoexcellence.org

BIO

Susan Chapman Brown is an ordained minister and conference speaker and author.   She is a mother and grandmother and resides in Grapevine, Texas .   Susan is the founder and president of Arising to Excellence Ministries.  www.Arisingtoexcellence.org