Enriched

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 1:1-11
     Steak.  A medium-rare filet mignon is probably the best cut of meat I could eat.  Thinking about it makes me salivate.  I never knew steak could taste so good until I ate one in a steakhouse.  My parents would cook steak on occasion when I was growing up, but they liked it well-done, and we could always only afford sirloin.  That is still not a cut I'm too fond of and when cooked all the way is difficult to chew and swallow.  That is kind of how I feel about the Pauline epistles.  Paul's books have never been my favorite to study.  Not because there isn't a lot there, on the contrary, there is so much there that I have to chew a while on the meat to swallow what I'm supposed to learn.  His writing style is not as poetic, more analytical, and I find I have to read verses more than a couple times to digest it all.  But there is so much to apply to the Christian life in his books that it would be foolish for me to always avoid them.  His books are deep.  They are thinkers.  They take some time to mull through.  So I may devote each day to half a chapter, or even a few verses with so much to consume.
     "That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:"      
     I love that word:  enrich.  I rarely look up words but I think it is essential here.  The prefix "en-" means to make or put in, and "rich", of course, means "wealthy". Enrich means to "improve; embellish".  God improves my speech.  He improves my knowledge. He improves me in every way.  How?  Through the One who confirmed my salvation in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. 
     In education, we were always encouraged to provide enrichment activities for the students.  These activities were supplemental to the curriculum and lesson plans.  Sometimes the enrichment was a planned activity that followed or introduced a lesson, like growing grass seed in a styrofoam cup to show the process of photosynthesis.  Sometimes the enrichment was something they could explore individually inside or outside the classroom, like visiting a museum exhibit on pioneer life.  But the whole point was to deepen their learning on a particular subject.  God deepens my learning.  Sometimes He does that just by reading His Word, but sometimes He takes me on a field trip.  Sometimes He takes me through hands-on experiences to enrich my learning.  These experiences are not always negative.  He gives me jobs to do, ones I'm not sure I can accomplish, but with His help am able to complete.  He challenges my thinking on subjects I thought I already had mastered.  He broadens my horizons, and allows me to venture down roads I have never traveled.  He does this to improve me.  He does this to make me rich.  Rich in Him. He puts things in me to make me wealthy.  Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual way.  Think about all that He does to make me a spiritually rich person.  I can't even list everything He does to do that.  He does this every day, and my supply is never depleted.  Just when I've said something ridiculous,  just when I think I know it all,  God is able to overcome my speech or my thoughts or my manners and show me a better way to do things.  And when He improves something, it is most definitely improved. 
     Thank you, God, for making me rich.  I am rich in more ways than I realize.  You put Your all into me to make me wealthy in You and my wealth in You is enough.