In a charity shop today I came across a book with a very ambitious title. I can't quite remember how it was worded, but it was something like The Complete Guide to Fixing Your Life. Or The Complete Guide to Sorting Out Your Life.
Naturally, I was intrigued.
I must say I was rather disappointed with the contents as it was primarily a book about changing your diet to incorporate more fruit and veg and unrefined foods etc. Not quite the life-changing tome the title suggested.
There have definitely been times in my life when I have wished for such a guide to life. A guide which would have fixed everything or sorted it all out.
I think often we can look at the Bible as a collection of interesting thoughts or 'catchy' proverbs. Along with Shakespeare, it is probably one of the most quoted and referenced books.
But it is so much more than a collection of dusty, over-used proverbs or snappy phrases.
I love how Jesus described His words,
“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
[Matthew 7:24-27 MSG]The words in the Bible aren't just catchphrases for us to toss around and slip into conversation. Or rather, if that is all they are to us, then we will never understand their true meaning and their true power in transforming our lives.
But when we work the words of the Bible into our lives, when we build our lives upon them, when we make them our foundation, we find ourselves equipped with a complete guide to truly sorting out our lives.
