Faith is like baking a cake. If you only read the recipe, it doesn’t do you much good.
Here’s a modern day parable about the importance of living our faith instead of just reading books about how to be more faithful.
Imagine a mom who promises her kids she’ll make a cake but spends way too much time hunting down the perfect recipe but never baking the cake.
How would you feel if you were one of her kids? Pretty bummed out, right?
The Bible says, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20) This episode helps us take an honest look at ourselves in the mirror and have a little fun in the process.
Sometimes we may feel we don’t have enough faith and repeat what Jesus’s disciples said, “Lord, increase our faith.” But it’s really a matter of using the faith we already have, even if it’s only two mites worth.
Blessings,
James
P. S. This parable was originally a blog post. If you’d like to read it, check out The Parable of the Unbaked Cake.
And did I mention cake? Here’s my mom’s recipe for my favorite when I was a kid. It’s nothing fancy, just good old fashioned buttermilk pound cake. Yummmm!
Note: I use all butter instead of half butter and half shortening.
If you make it, let me know.
Bible references mentioned this week:
James 2:20 KJV
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
II Timothy 3:7 ESV
7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Luke 21:1-4
1 ESV Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,
2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Luke 17:5, 6 ESV
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
