You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit. Job 10: 12
I love biscuits and jam, toast and jam, rolls and jam, and yes, even a spoonful of jam without bread. In the past, when I lived on our farm in the mountains of North Carolina, I preserved many a jar of jam: apple, blackberry, cherry, elderberry, raspberry, peach, and strawberry. I knew if I put the jam in jars and sealed them, I would have delicious fruit preserves for years to come. Today I buy them. Easy, but not the same as the satisfaction of
knowing I’ve done the grunt work to preserve them.
When I read the above verse where Job appeals to God for relief from his suffering, he does so on the grounds that God has made him and even if his body is miserable and falling apart, his spirit is intact. My spirit exists beyond any physical discomfort I may experience. Why? My life is a gift of God’s mercy; my spirit is a gift of His preservation. No matter how bad my health might become, no matter what tragedies may befall me, since I have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation through His taking my place on the cross, my spirit is living and will be forever. Whether I die before Jesus returns, or if I should live until He comes, my spirit is alive and well. Forever.
What about those preserves? When putting up preserves, three elements are in play to preserve them.
- Cook them
- Add sugar (and pectin most times)
- Seal them
We cook the fruit and sugar/pectin to stop any microbial growth; the sugar and pectin act as a natural preservation to reduce the water content and inhibit spoilage, and then they are sealed to keep the bacteria and molds out. By this process the jams will last years if left unopened.
Ah … but what about when we open them to spread on a nice warm biscuit right out of the oven? It is not common for jams to spoil when left out on the short term, but over a period of a few weeks, the exposure to the air will allow molds to form and result in spoilage. To keep the lid screwed on tight in the refrigerator is better.
My spirit is similar. Think of the refrigerator as a metaphor for where I am not exposed to ideology and temptations to influence my Christian walk in a negative way and would make me a moldy, foul-tasting Christian. Ben Franklin wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanack, “He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. “Does this mean I need to go to a convent to escape worldliness? No, because I would take myself with me—my propensity to crave pleasure, my greediness, and my attempts to “one-up” others—all marks of the world. No, my preservation process is the Holy Spirit in me, and my “refrigerator” is the study of God’s word, prayer, and fellowship with my church family. As I am consistent with such preservation and storage, so long as I live this side of heaven, I will present the good taste of Jesus to the world about me.
The Holy Spirit does the grunt work of making me more and more like Jesus; perhaps the folks I meet day by day are those who hold the biscuit.
Challenge: Assess your preservation status. Do the people you meet every day see the sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ in you?
Prayer: Father, help me to walk in step with You today and in the same direction, in order I would show other that I’ve been with You. Make me more worthy of Your goodness.
