What does pound cake have to do with being spiritual?

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Title: What does pound cake have to do with being spiritual?

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2 Peter 1:5 “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…”

I love pound cake, and I have a favorite recipe. Like most people who make the same thing again and again, I don’t even have it written down anymore. That can be a problem when someone asks me for the recipe. If it doesn’t turn out quite right for them, it’s probably because I forgot to tell them about an important step or one of the ingredients. I’m glad God isn’t careless about giving us the recipe for success in our lives.

Before trying a new recipe, we might want to define our terms. What are we hoping the recipe will produce? God’s “recipe” promises that meditating in and obeying His word will “make our way prosperous and give us good success.” (Josh 1:8) And it will. But we need to keep in mind that God’s version of “success” doesn’t mean we will have a gazillion dollars or win awards or become famous.

God’s definition of success is that we will become more like Christ and will have the inner peace and serenity that only He can give. Hurting people already know that money and worldly success can’t repair a shattered relationship, restore a broken marriage, heal a disease or bring the prodigal home. And they certainly can’t take the broken person that I am and make me the healthy, godly person God would have me to be. But God has a recipe that will.

It begins with faith, of course, and the Bible says that when we trust Christ, “old things pass away and all things become new.” (2 Cor 5:17) While that’s certainly true, it doesn’t happen instantly any more than that perfect cream cheese pound cake appears because you now have the recipe. The good things…the best things are never easy. They’re simple, yes; but simple doesn’t equate to easy.

Since my pound cake doesn’t use baking powder, it’s important that I’m very diligent about adding those eggs one at a time and beating the batter extremely well. If I skip one or more of the steps, my cake is going to suffer for it. And the changes in my character and yours aren’t going to be instant either. Our text verse assumes we have faith, and it then admonishes us to use diligence and add to that faith virtue.

It isn’t always easy to know the right thing to do, and it isn’t always easy to do the right thing even then. I’ve heard people in AA and Alanon use the phrase, “Just do the next right thing,” and I’ve always been confused by that. With all the demands for my attention, with all the stressful things that are happening, with all the conflicting priorities, how am I supposed to know what the “next right thing” is?

The answer for this broken person was to change the sentence just a little to, “Do the next thing right.” Every day presents different challenges, and every challenge brings me face to face with choices. I don’t have to go looking for that “next right thing.” It will come looking for me. And when it does, I can be diligent to choose what’s right. In doing that, I will be adding virtue to my faith and I will begin to grow.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, chose to “add virtue to our faith?”