on marinating

Last night we had some steaks that I had gotten on sale for dinner. I had meant to marinate them, but as the day got from me we just threw them on the grill plain. JD was a fine grill-master and the steaks were nice and juicy. But they were plain. They just needed a little something. Of course, I'd been looking forward to marinating them in this fabulous marinade that I'd found in one of Doris' cookbooks that I snatched when we lived with her. It's actually a marinade for flank steak. I wanted to try it on the sale steaks. Each time I've made this marinated flank steak it has disappeared faster than you can say "yummy." When you chew the juicy, flavorful meat you can't help but close your eyes and "mm-mmmm." I think it just might cross the line from mere food to fantasy. It got me thinking about how marinade can transform meat. And that got me thinking about how marinating in God's word can transform people. Marinating and meditating are very similar concepts. One is soaking in juices, the other is soaking in God's word. Both take a while. Both are transforming. How do you marinate in God's word? Simply read it. Read it even when you don't want to. Make time when you don't have time. Not every reading will be exciting but it is the living and active Word of God, sharper than a two edged sword, and when you faithfully read with anticipation, suddenly you will find that there are fireworks going off in your soul. Perhaps it's a verse that spoke to your situation. Perhaps it's a new understanding of the history of the Israelites and what they went through, and what God went through with them. But when you read God's word faithfully, there will be fireworks. And even when there aren't fireworks, you are still marinating, becoming transformed to be like Christ. Marinate in God's Word so much that you know it. Read the same thing over and over. Think about it. Let it soak down into your soul, getting the flavor right there to the deepest part of you. Memorize it. Put post-it notes with flavorful verses on your mirror, by the coffee maker, on your dashboard. Anywhere you see it again and again. When you are saturated with the flavor of Christ, because you've been soaking in the Word of God, you will find that you do what God says because you know what He says. When you are tempted, something you've read in God's word flashes through your mind and you are able to resist. You've been transformed. And I imagine that God might be saying "mm-mmmm." "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Joshua 1:8