Stew can mean “to simmer in anger.” However, that’s such a limited interpretation of the word. We should look at a stew rather as a mixture of the best that the world has to offer.
For example, take the earliest rays of the morning sunrise, the brilliance of a blue sky, and the inky black of a starry night. Mix them all up, and we get a wonderful day.
Our STEW God is made up of vignettes just like this. In our families, he is the vacation we cannot forget, the siblings who are our daily playmates, and the hugs we receive each night at bedtime.
At work he is the boss who gives us our promotion, the prime parking spot in the lot, and the corner office we don’t deserve.
On the subway, he is the turnstile that operates flawlessly, the empty seat during rush hour, and our arrival at our destination on time.
Our God is a STEW of the best life offers. Let’s take a look at our STEW God:
S – He dumps SIDON into the pot.
Matthew 15:21 tells the story of Jesus and the Pharisees, who were offended at his words. The stew needed something flavorful to make it palpable, so Jesus searched for a better ingredient.
“Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and SIDON.”
What tasty morsel did he find there? A woman who was a gentile, and she believed even when the Jews did not.
T – He finds some TOMBS to spice it up.
Mark 5:2-3 begins a passage about a man bound with chains.
“And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the TOMBS a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the TOMBS; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains.”
What really had him bound was an evil spirit. He was the spice that Jesus needed in the pot, and Jesus set him free.
E – He throws in some finely chopped EPHESUS.
1 Corinthians 16:8 is Paul’s simmer stage for God’s recipe.
“But I will tarry at EPHESUS until Pentecost.”
Paul found opportunities where God provided them, going where God said and staying until God released him. In the next verse, Paul says a door for ministry in Ephesus had been opened for him to defeat many adversaries. The essence of Ephesus infiltrated Paul's life, and God’s stew now began to smell really tasty.
W – He serves it up with a WORD.
Matthew 4:4 gives us the spoken words of Jesus:
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every WORD that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
This is the final ingredient that makes our God a culinary delight. When he speaks, all knowledge is ours. His words are the spice of life, the breath that we breathe, and the very substance of the earth itself.
As the scriptures tell us in Psalm 33:6, the heavens and the earth were made by the spoken word of God. How’s that for spicing up the STEW of life?
When we become part of God, we partake of all the wonderful things he has to offer.
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Code: FGO.J.18.14b.vp