Teapots and Tea

The following lesson is one that was shared with our HOW (Hearts of Women ) group last night. It is very similar in style to former devotionals, so it is an easy read and hopefully will make you look at tea time with a new perspective.


Tea Pots and Tea
What happens to a carrot and an egg when they are put into hot water...you give up?   Carrot gets soft and egg gets hard!
Now sticking with the hot water deal, do you remember this song?

"I am a little tea pot short and stout here is my handle and here is my spout .  When I get all steamed up, I just shout:  tip me over and pour me out."
The same question applies: what happens to the tea bag when it is immersed into hot water?  The answer is on its way!!!

First, how would you answer this personal question? When life steams you up, be it emotions, fear, loneliness, inadequacy, insecurity, anger, frustration, doubt, worry, disappointment, hurts, tears, indecision ... you name it...what is poured out of you?

My daughter Molly and I helped to give a wedding shower a few weeks ago, and I purchased an assortment of tea pots to be the containers for the centerpieces.  We used a few and I ended up with three extra, because they were too small for the tables.  I couldn't part with them thinking I will be glad I have these one day. So they sat, displayed on a buffet table in my dining room and I would pass them each day wondering what I would eventually use them for.  Then one night it came to me, God gave me a lesson about tea and teapots.  So here goes...

There were three of them, each different in style but crafted for the same goal.....to be the vessel for a steeped, fragrant, flavored antidote to quiet a restless heart, to warm a troubled soul, to soothe the clanging pressures built up in the mind, or just to let us be still and relax for a few minutes. With the three tea pots,  it came to me ... three of the ways that God deals with us.

1)   He Touches Us
2)   He Teaches Us
3)   He Transforms Us

1) God touches us ... and everyone of us who are here tonight have been touched by God through His Holy Spirit or we wouldn't be here. And the very moment that our lives meet His,  just like a tea bag when it hits hot water, is when His work begins. Our recognition of Him might be muffled in circumstances and the world around us clanging for our attention but once God claims us as his own, there is no undoing the grace and mercy that comes through His holy touch.
Think back in bible times, what were some of the things Jesus did during his short journey on this earth. He healed the blind, the lame, the leapors, the deaf, brought life to the dead, etc. But what was the common denominator....it was His touch!And if you are reading this, chances are pretty strong that he has touched you too! Maybe when you were a child, or a teenager, a young adult or even as an older adult.  His touch cannot be denied for things begin to change within you.  Very subtly, you start being aware of things and people, and traits in you and in others that never had caught your attention before.

Luke 7:22
So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

2) God teaches us... It is only through continued emersion that we become stronger. There is a recognized quote by Elenor Roosevelt that says:
"People are like tea bags, you never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water."

Everyone of you in this room has, is and will experience that hot water experience.  But what you may not have come to total grips with is this: God is allowing his master crafted plan of your life, your personal life, to be unveiled.  He is pulling out, and exposing gifts of strength, courage and tenacity within you that you did not even know you were capable of having. Just think about it a minute...if it has been less than a year or more than ten when you were confronted with this monumental loss of what you had expected to be your lifelong partner, and if it left you temporarily paralyzed, you still were able to take that next step, to carry on. Just think for a minute on what you thought you couldn't do and yet you have done, not because you have chosen to, but because hot water forced it out of you. God was there to help you, whether you realized it or not.

You have had support, and God's wisdom and strength has been infused into you through the Holy Spirit and friends and family who have had your back.  God teaches us through experience of course, and through others, and worldly insights, but I believe that one of his most favored ways to teach us is through his word. There lies His heavenly wisdom which trumps our earthly wisdom any day.

       God's word has all the components we need to pursue life; encouragement, comfort, wisdom, forgiveness, direction, examples, stories of success, of power, of courage, of hope and on and on. All these elements are available to us for His ultimate purpose and will for each of our lives.  So everyday, if we give God a chance by coming to him in prayer with our needs and our struggles, our obstacles and our fears, and even our complaints, he hears them and will help us work our way through them.
       God already has proven to be our lifelong companion from the very moment we finally realized that he touched our lives through Christ, and He continues on through His Holy Spirit.  As we become steeped in his word, we are learning new ways, and new perspectives to live life out in a way that we can be content in spite of circumstances that surround us.  We then are positioned to help to make this world a better place through what we have learned by sharing our victories with others and encouraging them to keep on "brewing" (in the Lord) in spite of circumstances.  We do become stronger and life becomes a more fragrant reflection of who we are, we are children of the King of Kings.  Each us has been infused by God with a purpose outside of ourselves.  As we prayerfully submit to Christ, our own wills, and trust Him with His will, that is where we find contentment, and peace and can pass it on to those whose paths we cross.
           There is something relaxing and peaceful about a freshly brewed cup of tea. And what is so relative about this lesson, is that when you place a tea bag in hot water, it doesn't change, but the hot water reveals what was already in the tea bag.  Tea cannot be tea through without the influence of hot water.
And we cannot be all that we were created to be without Christ interceding and guiding us along our journey. With his help, we can and "will" discover what His will for each of our lives is.
Psalm 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Proverbs 22:19
So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you!

3) God transforms us .... Just as the tea bag has been transformed into the steeped, flavored, fragrant antidote for restlessness, be it the circumstances that surround us or the inward struggles that we can't seem to steer free of, we are being equipped with the strength, power, and might of the Holy Spirit.  This is where our true, unblemished trust comes into play.  Day by day we are being transformed. But we have to trust that God is working even if the outcome is still blurry.   It is a gradual process that has no timelines or boundaries and it is being done through the very hand of God himself. As we forge ahead in trust we can be confident that Christ will, and is, and does  have a vested interest in our moment to moment, day to day lives.  We are a people of purpose, and our primary purpose is to know God and seek his face.


Romans 12:2New International Version (NIV)
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

      So God has touched us, is teaching us and is transforming us but how we will know when we are ready to be poured out.  The answer is now, everyday!  For we are being poured out unto this world and we are a reflection of what God's touching,  teaching and the transforming look like.   As we are seeped into this relationship with Christ, we will find that there are blessings,  too many to count, and if we embrace those blessings beginning with who we are in Christ, and the opportunities that he has placed before us, we will find that gratitude and thanksgiving to God will be our greatest antidote for the worldly clamors that wrestle for our attention, our emotions and our struggles.
        When we get it that thanksgiving is our greatest cup of tea to pour out unto God, it is then that our perspectives change, and  our attitudes change. We not only find contentment on our own path but we are also able to serve one another. It is through our understanding that God loved us first and though circumstances about us might be awful, He remains faithful and we remain steeped in his grace and mercy.   God has poured out his love generously on us and we too are called to pour our love generously on others.

Romans 5:3-5
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
The question remains, when you get all steamed up what is poured out of you?

Dear Lord, May we be mindful of your touch, equipped by your teaching, and transformed by your Holy Spirit. May our thanksgiving and gratitude for your many blessings be evident and through you, may we pour out our love to others. Amen