And A Pinch Of Jesus! II Kings 4:38-41 & John 3:16

I love a good stew.I love mines with everything you can put in it. The more ingredients the more hearty the stew. In today's passage of scripture there was a great pot of pottage (stew) being made for the sons of the prophets. These prophets were basically in prophet's school and Elisha was the Headmaster. He told them set this great pot out and let's have a meal. It would be like a big crawfish boil today everyone going out and bringing some ingredient for the boil. The Bible goes on to state that one man gathered some "wild gourds"(squash) that was poisonous and not knowing this fact,added them to the pot. In other words he didn't do this thing on purpose. He was trying to do what was right and it ended up almost killing everyone including himself. The Bible states that they cried to Elisha saying "there is death in the pot".(kjv)Read Romans 6:23 and compare.
Now let's look at how Elisha solved this problem. The simple thing to do would be to pour out all the great pot of pottage and start all over again. They could have made sure no bad things or ingredients was put into the new pot. They could try and make things "good".But God doesn't work that way!
Verse 41 reads:"But he (Elisha) said,Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat.And there was no harm in the pot."(kjv) What did Elisha do in this situation? He didn't give up on the pot he just added another ingredient!!!All the work they had put into the stew would have been for nothing!!So he put a pinch of meal in the pot and the pottage gave life instead of death.
God did the same thing for us.(Read Jn.3:16) This world(pot) was full of death(sin) and He didn't throw the pottage(us) away,He just added another ingredient!! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!!!!
Sometimes our lives are just like that pot of pottage. We try to do everything right and then we are faced with the sin in our lives. We try and take the easy way out. We say if I just quit doing this or stop going there, then everything will be alright. If I leave her or him alone I won't have to deal with "my" sin. Let's just empty the pot out and start over again!!!!
God and Elisha showed us that sometimes it's not what we take out of our lives that brings us life but what we add to it!! We need to add a pinch of Jesus to our pot!! Every time sin threatens to take away the life and things that God has given you, it's time for another pinch of Jesus!! When you are at the end of you rope and can't seem to hold on any longer add a pinch of Jesus!! And if you need more than a pinch season your pottage to your taste!!
There is no easy way in life not to get to where God wants us to be. Sin is something we cannot overcome on our own, that is why God give us the ingredient we need; JESUS!! Add a pinch today!!!
"Father, we all have sins in our lives that we can't run away from. We can't just take the easy way out and throw them out, for they will still be there. Help us to turn to your son Jesus the main ingredient we need in this life. In Jesus name we pray,AMEN!"