It’s Not Enough To Believe In Jesus + Sweet Potato Beef Stew

You may have read that title and thought, “Wait….WHAT?!”

So let me clarify: Yes,
Jesus Christ is the way and the life. No one will enter the kingdom or have access to Yahweh, except through Him.

This particular post refers to the believing AND the doing of the Word. It takes more than just believing in Christ. Evil spirits believe in Christ!

…I’ll just let that set in for a minute.

Yes, evil spirits believe in Christ.

So now, I’m asking you: What sets you apart from them?

Are you committed to Him? Will you obey the assignment that He has for you?

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”

-Psalm 37:4-6

That word commit really stands out to me. It’s funny how we seem to be able to commit ourselves to everything except the very One who already committed Himself to us. We can commit to our degrees, our supervisors, the kids’ PTA, football teams, working out, wedding days, etc. But when it’s time to commit to the Lord, or plates all of a sudden become full. We don’t have any more time available.

Schedule booked; no more vacancy.

Here’s the thing: it’s not enough to simply believe in Yeshua. We are called to be committed to him as well. To be committed to the Lord is to follow Him. “Follow” is an action word.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”

-Matthew 16:24

Whenever God tells me to do something that makes me a bit nervous, He often reminds me of Jesus’s earlier ministry. He chose his disciples and told them to follow Him. I especially love how Simon and Andrew respond to Yeshua.

“Passing along the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fisherman. And Jesus said to them ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ And immediately they left their nests and followed him.”

-Mark 1:16-18

There was no back and forth. They obeyed immediately. If you keep reading, another set of brothers (James and John) left their own father to follow Christ. They left everything they knew and trusted and placed that trust in Yahweh. They demonstrated their trust by following him.

How does this look today?

The Lord tells you to leave your job. And what do you do?

You rationalize with God. You say “Are you SURE, God? I’m just going to wait it out, you know, just to make sure that I’m hearing you correctly.”

I know, because I did it.

I was working a dead end job that I grew to absolutely despise. I had only been there for about 5 months when the Lord told me to put in my intent to not return. It was at a school, so you sign a contract to work for a full school year. So, instead of putting in your two weeks’ notice, you notify the principle that you will not be returning for the following school year.

The Lord told me to submit my intent to leave, but I tried to rationalize with Him. At first, I doubted that it was even Him who said it. I mean, I had only been there for 5 months. And I couldn’t understand WHY He would remove me that soon.

And let’s keep it real! Those student loans were at the forefront of my mind. I just wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible (still do!)But the Lord pulled me to the side one day as I was having a meltdown at work and said “You haven’t spent any time with me since I gave you this job. It has become your god. You serve your job, not me.”

I started to think back over the past 5 months, and He was right. I hadn’t said anything to Him beyond “Good morning”, and my heart literally began to break. I had let the demands of the job completely distract me from who is really important. I knew I needed to let the job go.

So that day, I decided that this would be my first and last year at this job…..but I still didn’t write my resignation letter immediately. I decided that I would wait until the end of the year so that I wouldn’t subject myself to workplace hazing (this was me rationalizing based on my own human understanding).

I know! Crazy right?

Friends, delayed obedience is still disobedience and you better believe that it comes with its own set of consequences. Because of my delayed obedience, things at work continued to get worse, I had no peace whatsoever! Parents and students were driving me up the wall, and I even started to have run-ins with my coworkers and it had gotten to the point where my entire body would tense up every morning that I walked inside of that school building. Gosh, I could’ve saved myself so much stress had I just been obedient like the first disciples….immediately and without question!

Once the school year was over and I submitted my resignation letter, an immediate sense of relief came over my body. I was finally free and I no longer cared about how my student loans would get paid. Yahweh would take care of my bills, and He did.

Two months later, a colleague told me that she was leaving her job and that she would recommend me for the position. She already knew I wanted it because she tried to help me get one like it the year before. This particular position was unique in my field because it was only 40 hours per week (“normal” is 60-80 hours), it came with a flex schedule and no teaching responsibilities.

One thing led to another and I was hired on at that job, where I currently am. Now, the first thing I do when walking into my office is have my quiet time with the Lord. I would’ve never been able to do that at my last job. I am so grateful where I currently am. Even though I took a $20k pay cut to be here.

Have I missed that $20k?! Not at all! Between picking up extra gigs on the side and running my own online business, all my needs are being met AND my student loans are disappearing quickly!

God is so faithful! He never fails me, and He will never fail you.

Following Him, not just believing in him, will put your whole life into perspective, just the way He intended.

There will still be tests! Shoot, you better believe that tests are still being thrown my way.

But I’m passing those bad boys, and when I don’t pass, He’s patient enough with me to keep giving me the same test until I pass it. As a former teacher by default, I can’t even comprehend that level of patience. I would absolutely hate having to keep issuing the same exam to the same student until they pass it.

But that’s the beauty of operating in His almighty power, as opposed to our own understanding.

Now it's time for our whole food recipe...

Sweet Potato Beef Stew 

 

This is the perfect healthy winter recipe! Not only will it keep you warm during those cold nights, but it's a great timesaver. What I love about slow cooking meat: it's so tender and gives you that fall-off-the bone flavor! Plus, you can put it in the pot, and let it work its magic while you can tend to other pressing matters. So we'll be using a slow cooker for this dish so go ahead and pull yours out, and let's get started!

Serving Size

Makes about 11-12 servings

Ingredients

2 Pounds of beef chuck
1 Cup of almond flour
Olive oil
4 3/4 cups of beef broth
2 Sweet Potatoes
2 Carrots
2 Celery stalks
1 1/2 Onion
Cilantro
1/4 Cup of sunflower seeds
3 bay leaves
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic

Seasoning Mix:
1 tablespoon of each: cinnamon, paprika, onion powder, dried basil, sea salt
1 teaspoon of each: oregano, pepper

Cooking Instructions

Chop your carrots, sweet potatoes, celery, onions, and garlic (mince).

For the seasoning mix, combine all spices in a closed-tight container and shake. In a small bowl, combine 2 table spoons of the seasoning mix with the flour.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add just enough to cover the bottom.

Dip the beef chuck pieces into the mixture. Make sure to cover all sides, and then place in the oil. Fill the skillet, allowing some space in between each chuck. Cook the meat just enough so that the outsides are brown. The remaining part will cook in the slow-cooker. Depending on the size of your skillet, you may have to do this step in 2 batches. Place the beef into your slow cooker.

Poor 1 cup of beef broth into your skillet. With a spatula, lightly scrape the skillet so that the seasoning will loosen. Then pour it all into the slow-cooker.

Add your chopped veggies, the rest of the beef broth, cayenne pepper and the sunflower seeds. Mix well.

Add cilantro and bay leaves.

Cover, and cook on low for 12 hours. If you're in a hurry, cook on high for 7 hours.

Once it's done, you can add a few avocado slices on the side. I'm pretty much obsessed with avocado and will add it to just about anything!

Give it a try and let us know how it turned out, by tagging us in your favorite social media channels below!

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And remember!...



He loves you more than you can imagine,

Nefertari Tierra