Read your Manual

by Maurice Pujol
Published March 17, 2006

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)

Just as health, safety, wholeness, happiness and peace are included as fringe benefits of a person’s salvation experience, so the opposite is true for those who reject God’s offer of eternal life.

How do people reject God? Do they wake up one day, shake their fists at the sky and utter conscious words of rebellion? A few unfortunate souls probably do this, but most of those traveling the wide and slippery path to hell don’t even realize they are on it.

Instead of trusting in the Lord, they depend on their own strength and cleverness to get through life. There’s an old saying that he who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. The same is true for the person who depends totally on himself for spiritual guidance. Self-mentoring opens one up to all sorts of error.

Instead of turning to the Word to get a revelation of truth, they reach their own conclusions about right and wrong. God’s Word, the holy Bible, is the most important tool a person has to negotiate a successful path through this life.

God designed us physically, mentally and spiritually. He infused us with a life force, a reflection of His own, when He created our spirits at the moment of conception (this is why abortion is the murder of a human being, no matter when it’s done).

God gave us a free will and created in us the most complex computer in the world, the human brain. The brain processes millions of bit of information daily, input from within our bodies and from the external world. It is the seat of our wills, thoughts and emotions.

Then, there’s the human body. It is a fantastic, wonderful design, each part playing a unique role in its growth and continuing survival. The body has all sorts of processes to repair itself, to ward off illness and infections and to keep itself intact. Its largest organ, the skin, covers it. Nearly all the cells in the body are replaced within seven years as a body grows, a process, which slows as the body ages.

Humans are one harmonious conjunction, then, of spirit, soul and body. What happens in one area affects other areas. Health of the body, along with a balance in thoughts and emotions, are results of a spirit in right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The Designer of human beings gave us an operator’s manual we call the Bible. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about running our lives, just as the owner’s manual in the glove compartment tells you everything you need to know about your car.

Like that automobile owner’s manual, though, the Bible goes largely unread by most people. They try doing things their way instead of God’s way. Spiritually, they put water in their gas tanks and gas in their radiators. What’s worse, when things go wrong in their lives, they start blaming God.

Then, along come disease and disaster. God gets even more of the blame, especially from those who never bothered to read their owner’s manuals.

In a simple yet profound bit of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs, all this could have been avoided. Of course, there are passages and stories throughout the Bible, which say the same thing. God repeats His advice over and over because He knows how “hard of hearing” people can be.

The above passage from Proverbs summarizes these basic truths quite well. We are told to acknowledge God in all our ways. This means we don’t just give Him lip service for an hour on Sundays. It means that in all we do, in everything we say, that our relationship with Him is enforced and expressed. If we do this, God promises to make our paths “straight.” This means our lives will not crash and burn like the lives of some of the people we know. God will be with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will help us navigate the rough waters when trouble hits, and we will always be led to safe and secure places.

The word “sinister,” from which we derive the word “sin,” means crooked and winding. When God promises to make our paths “straight,” it means the opposite – in all its implications.

God then advises us not to be wise in our “own eyes.” This means we cannot depend solely on our thoughts and conclusions. We must turn to God and to others who are in tune with God in order that we may discern truth from falsehood and right from wrong. The Bible also tells us that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for those who are saved is that special discernment which leads us to the truth.

Fearing the Lord means we must have a healthy respect for our Creator. We can always come boldly to His throne of grace, but we must never forget that He is God. We are joint heirs with Christ, but we are not His equals. We are not gods, and we will never become gods.

In order to “shun evil,” we first must know the difference between good and evil. We then must have the strength to choose what’s good and avoid what’s evil. These are both byproducts of our salvation.

To take God up on His offer of salvation, to receive all these benefits, we must first acknowledge and repent of our sins. Because Jesus died on the cross, the penalty we should bear has already been paid, but we must honor this sacrifice by admitting that we are sinners in need of this divine help. We must then make a solid commitment to turn away from our sinful pasts and, with God’s grace, to live better in the future.

The reason there is so much illness and tragedy, heartaches and destruction, in people’s lives today is that we have largely turned our backs on God. We have ignored His prescription for divine health, and we are paying the price at hospitals and doctors’ offices. We have ignored His advice about gaining peace and happiness, and we are adding to our drug bills for pills, which are supposed to keep us from being depressed and full of worry.

We have decided that wrong is right and right is wrong, and then wonder why our lives have been turned upside down. We do all sorts of crazy things in an attempt to avoid thinking about our mortality, driven to all sorts of bad behaviors through fear of death.

And all of it could be avoided by just reading the owner’s manual, then doing what it says.

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