Working Faith (Recipe: Naan)

The Bible is ever pressing us to have faith. Faith appears to the very foundation of our salvation. But what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

But faith by itself, we are told, is pointless. So what makes faith effective?

James 2: 14-17: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Wow! This is interesting! So it is clearly not enough for us to just say that we have faith, but we have to show this faith through our actions. How can we do this? What does this mean? It’s quite simple actually, it means that we need to live like we really believe what the word of God tells us.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5: 3-5: But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

This means that if we are impure, if we are jealous or full of envy, if we speak things that are inappropriate as children of God, and if we think that this is ok, if we live like what the above verse says isn’t really true, then it would clearly show that we have no faith in God’s word! But if our actions are in accordance with the word, if we are careful with how we speak or if we protect our mind from envy and jealousy, if we keep away from immorality, even in thought, because we know that God condemns this and says that there is no place in his kingdom for people like that, then these are an example of the works in our lives that show our faith.

In other words, living in obedience to God’s word is how we accompany our faith with works. When we not only acknowledge the word of God as the authority in our lives, but also base all our actions on this word, then we not only confess faith with our mouth, but we show it in our works, the faith that every word in God’s word is truth.

Let us pray to the Lord for the ability to supplement our faith in his word, with works by his word, without which, any faith we claim is without substance.

The recipe for today shows how to make Naan.

Ingredients:

Plain flour – 2 cups
Yeast – 1 teaspoon
Water – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 tablespoon
Ghee – 1 Tablespoon
Egg – 1
Salt – as required

Instructions:

1.Take half a cup of luke warm water and dissolve the yeast and sugar in this. Cover the cup with a saucer, keep aside till yeast ferments and rises.

2.Take the flour in a bowl, to this add ghee, egg, salt and the fermented yeast solution. If you do not require the whole solution, you need not use it. Make sure the dough is moist, but with the consistency of chapatti dough. Knead well, for at least 10 minutes.

3.Cover the dough with a wet cloth and keep the bowl aside for at least 2 – 3 hours.

4.The dough would have doubled in size now. Divide the dough into smaller balls, slightly larger than would be needed to make chapattis.

5.Roll out the dough in long oval shapes, but with ¼ inch thickness.

6.Heat a frying pan or chapatti tava and warm both sides of the naan. Then remove the frying pan, hold the naan with a pair of tongs and place it on the open flame of the stove. Be careful not to hold the naan over the flame too long or it will burn. Flip both sides of the naan over the flame to cook well. You can serve plain naan or smear some butter over the cooked naan and serve as butter naan.