If You'll Simply Follow the Directions: Zumbo's Just Desserts and How to Trust God's Timing

When you're driving and your GPS says, "Turn left here, you do it." So why is it so hard to obey God with the unfamiliar? 

In an impossible dessert challenge, Zumbo's Just Desserts makes you throw everything you "thought you knew" out the window in order to come out stronger. See how the challenges correlate to your walk with God...

One of my favorite shows is Zumbo's Just Desserts, which can be found on the Netflix app or through the Netflix channel. You can get it free for 30-days with their free trial offer if you go to the Netflix website and then just do a search for Zumbo's Just Desserts.

The reason I love the show, which is based out of Australia, is they ask for the impossible and it's a great example in understanding how we face challenges and struggle to do all that God asks of us as we learn to rebuke and break away from our flesh and learn to obey God through faith.

The season starts out and the amateur dessert chefs and stay-at-home moms know it's a dessert baking and cake decorating competition, but oh, it's so much more (inject sinister bad guy laughter here). They come in with their talent and skills, and all that is blown out of the water by Adriano Zumbo, a master cake decorator who has ideas that go beyond the standard cupcakes and frosting. This clearly is not your mother's cooking competition and Houston, we do indeed have a problem.

The chefs create a dessert and 2 losing chefs have to go to the challenge round where all the action takes place. They're asked to replicate a dessert Zumbo has made and it's no easy task! He gives them instructions that they have to follow with precision timing because all of his creations are extremely complex and instead of having a 2- or 3-layer cake, he might have 7 - 10 layers that are very unusual and with a lot of details like making an ice cream cone with tomato jelly and taco shells (whuh?). Exactly. As the chefs explain, the challenges are tasks that can take a chef years to master and with the Zumbo tests, they only have 3-hours.

The chefs have pages and pages of instructions and if they veer from it, well, it's "buh-bye" and onto the next episode sans that particular chef. The problem is the clock is ticking and they all usually feel overwhelmed and give up or they try to veer from his instructions and make a huge mess of things because they didn't follow his instructions exactly as he has them laid out (you know we're going somewhere with this, right?). This is where any weaknesses in the chefs are exposed. While the first challenge allows them to display their experience - - and anyone can shine doing the familiar, the second challenge takes them completely out of their elements. Oh, let the fun begin!

A highlight of the show is the dessert assistant, Gigi, with her sweet Brazilian-accent. She sounds a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger as she confirms with the struggling contestants that it looks like they really need help and are in way over their heads, and then loudly screams, "You're running out of timmmmme!"

But that's the show and thank God we serve a merciful Father God who loves us. The funny part about life, and God's timing, is that while God never really tells us what's going on in full, He's there to keep us in perfect peace as we learn to trust Him and build confidence in Him. He doesn't give us the details but wants us to follow what sometimes sounds to us like one impossible instruction and then another and then another, but hint and spoiler alert: With God, all things are possible! Glory to God!

As you go from faith to faith and glory to glory, you can learn that God's timing and His plan will always work out and you'll always come out better, or batter if you prefer a cake pun.

In the show, the chefs - even the best of them, are all faced with a moment where they all gasp at some point in exasperation and say, "I can't possibly do this!". It's a stressful show and they all have their breaking points and moments when they realize that all their talents and gifts don't matter because they've never delved into the mind of Zumbo before and can't simply master his creations on their own. They have to follow Zumbo's instructions in order to get the end result and get it perfect.

When you think about your own life, remember, the end result with God is always good. It's just a matter of trusting God and His timing to see the sweet reward despite life's challenges. God never puts more on us than we can bear, but we have to leave our burdens at the cross and our preconceived notions about what works and the best way to do things. That's where we have to say, "Not my will, but thine be done, Lord."

To Help You Follow God:

• When God gives a command, reconfirm it by speaking it back to Him and obeying Him. It's important to do this right away before analyzing what He said or interjecting your opinion on the matter. Example, "Moses, take the people through the Red Sea, but not on Royal Caribbean." You get the idea...
• Write down what God says to do so you don't forget. Keep a journal. He might give a Word that is "out of time" meaning it's a confirming Word or message but for something that hasn't happened yet. God doesn't work in time so His Word doesn't have a set date. Think Abraham and Sarah hearing they would have a child but it took place later than they thought or Mary being a virgin with child.
• If you're ever unsure, you can ask God for a sign, but you should move in the direction that you heard God say to go into and listen for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Think Noah standing in line arguing at Home Depot, "I'm not sure what an arc looks like either but I need all they ply wood you have!"
• If you have trouble discerning God's voice through the Holy Spirit, pray and ask Him to help you hear Him clearly. He will guide you. The purpose is to help you grow in your faith walk. In the Bible, young Samuel thought Eli was calling him and ran over 3 times, "Here am I!" It was God.

   

While Zumbo's Just Desserts is entertaining because all the chefs get frustrated at some point realizing they might not be able to recreate such complex dessert creations, in life, God is not playing games with us. It's called faith, and without it, we can't please God. God requires faith, not flesh. He wants us to grow in our faith walk based on His instructions and directions.

When you hear God give you an instruction, just obey. It might not make sense, but it doesn't have to. Dr. Charles Stanley says, "Obey God and leave the consequences to Him." Just obey and don't allow yourself to rationalize with God about why it looks or sounds impossible. By turning your will over to God and saying, "Okay, Lord, I trust you," you're doing just what will take you to the next step and the next one and the next. And that, my friends, leads to the sweet reward!  

As we were prepping this and working on the title, "If you simply trust God's timing," the Holy Spirit added, "You will not fail." Glory to your name, Lord!