FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them.

Proverbs 28:4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever bought a piece of furniture that came in a box?

You know the kind I am talking about. Maybe it might be a bookshelf or a coffee table or a nightstand. I have even bought an entertainment center that was in a box before. You see it put together and decide to buy it, often without much consideration to the sweat equity you will invest in making it look like the display model that prompted you to purchase in the first place.

And so you get the box home, muscle it to where you want to put the item you bought, and get to the task of putting it together. To do that, you need to pull out the trusty instructions that are within the box. Now, I don’t know what your experiences have been with these instructions but they often are written in a kind of picture/word language that gets some getting used to. Actually, in my experience, there are more pictures than words. My guess is that this makes the assembly more universal, foregoing the need to language translations.

Once you start the assembly, you will usually end up with the right finished product as long as you follow the instructions. This involves strict attention to detail and an exact following of each step put forth. Skip a step or make a mistake and you’ll mess things up, maybe permanently although most of the time you will be able to go back and correct your mistake before proceeding with more caution afterwards.

The key is to always follow the instructions.

Well, Solomon had something to say on this matter but he wasn’t talking about assembling furniture. Look at his words again:

Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them. Proverbs 28:4

Note here that the focus is on following instructions but that’s where any similarity ends with the beginning of this devotion. For as you can see here, the word of God elevates the matter of following instructions to a completely higher level in this proverb. There’s a lot more at stake than something we put together not coming out right. We’re talking about our very status with the Lord and how He sees us in His sight.

You see, the Lord has already given us a holy book of instructions to help guide us through the steps we need to take in life. Follow the steps and you will build a life on the foundation of right living and in turn righteousness. Only those who heed the Lord’s instruction find themselves in that place becoming the finished product that He wants us to be.

Conversely, those who forsake the Lord’s instructions are opting for a life full of sin, showing their favor toward wickedness and the dark path to destruction it presents. This path is paved with a litany of mistakes and foolish behavior, folly and evil, transgression and immorality.

Want to get things right in life, whether it’s putting a piece of furniture together or living in a way that is pleasing in the Lord’s sight, magnifying and glorifying Him in every way?

All you need to do is follow the instructions.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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