My User Manual & My Daily Medicine Dose
From TVs to cars, most everything we purchase these days come with user manuals. For most of us, we rarely read the user manual until something breaks down or isn’t working properly. But, then, we don’t even go to the manual first, we google our issue and find the answer there.
Today, I’m talking about my personal User Manual. It’s the Bible. It’s not just another book on the book shelf that we pick up once, read a little of it, and then be done. It’s not like other books we read and maybe read it a second time because it was such a good story. The Bible is our go-to book as a User Manual, as a daily source of inspiration that brings life to us. God’s Spirit inhabits God’s Word. He beckons us to sit in His presence and breathe in what we’re reading. If we would remember that everything in our lives hinges on God and His promises, then we can count on Him working in our lives. His purposes cannot be thwarted. Searching out His promises and setting our hearts on what He says to us, is truly how to “fix” what’s wrong and make us right in every area of our lives.
Many people are in great fear about what tomorrow holds. The coronavirus, political voices, the negativity of the news, and all those fears that try to consume us every day. But I have a prescription for you that will cure you of all those ailments. I spoke to my women’s group about the importance of taking this prescription daily in this illustration. I give it to you today from this medicine bottle. If I had the cure for stress and worry; for sadness, pain and guaranteed joy and peace and I kept it to myself, what kind of friend would I be? I do have the cure – and it’s found in the prescription of God’s Holy Word. It’s prescribed to “whoever” by Dr. Jesus. The supply is unlimited and the side effects are peace, joy, hope, love, patience, better health, abundant life and so much more.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve read a scripture and I found the answer to my problem or question. I have daily “epiphanies” – aha moments from reading and soaking in God’s Word. In Luke 24, we read about two disciples who were sad and confused after the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus was walking with them on the Road to Emmaus, but they didn’t recognize Him. They invited Him to come home with them and in Luke 24:30-31 we read that the disciples’ eyes were opened after Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them to eat.
Jesus is OUR Bread of Life, the Living Word, and we are nourished by Him when we open the Holy Scriptures to feed on his truth. Ultimately, it is Christ who feeds us with spiritual nourishment through His Word, but we must choose to come to the table. It is Jesus who feeds us through His living, powerful, and active Word of truth, but we must choose to open the Bible and search its riches, expecting to hear from Him.
On the evening of Resurrection Sunday, it was the Scriptures—being illuminated to the disciples—that burned in their hearts. That same power exists in God’s eternal Word. Does it burn within your heart today?
Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Psalm 119:11 “Your Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.”