We all desire to improve ourselves. There is an over abundance of self-help, self-improvement books. How to love, die, eat, diet, fast, sleep, marry, divorce, find happiness, forgive, pray, get rich, save pennies…and on it goes. We are searching for someone who can tell us how to do all the above and bring order to the chaos that is often our life.
I could not estimate the amount of money spent on books written by people who may or may not actually have experience with what they are giving counseling on. But, we buy the books. Read through, and then place them on a bookshelf to collect dust. Money that could have been spent a bit more wisely and brought more benefit than the book, that now sits on a shelf.
The greatest self-help, self-improvement book of all time was written approximately two-thousand years ago. Sadly, it often also sits on shelves collecting dust. God’s word is so easy to come by. We have access to the words of this age-old book at no cost. We can go to the internet and get every translation, ever written, at no cost. We can also pay money to have our own copy to study through, even mark through.
Years ago, as a new believer, a remark was made to me about the sacredness of the book. I was writing in the margins and making notes and color coding. I suppose this dear saint thought I was being disrespectful by writing in God’s word. I paused for a week or so, wondering if God was frowning on me writing in the margins of His self-improvement book. My conclusion? No.
My Bible has been with me through every major storm in my life. As I have studied, I have marked the date. As I sat praying over loved ones in hospitals and hospice rooms, my Bible was there with me. Recorded on its pages are reminders that God has always been close by. Has that always been a realization? Not always. Do we take all that we read to heart? Not always. Do we believe what we are reading? For myself, finally, the answer is, always. But we are weak. We stumble. We experience fear. We struggle. We cry for help like everyone else. But, can’t we say without pause, we have never gone to the pages of our Bible that we didn’t find encouragement? Answers as we sit in the boat tossed by storms. Our “lifeboat.”
Personally, I have always found a word telling me to love this way, walk this way, live this way, speak this way, pray this way, forgive this way, fast this way, hope this way. I also have found that it was okay to seek, weep, grieve, experience disappointment, walk through storms, falter, fail, disappoint. It is the greatest self-help book ever written.
Thought For Today:
I have always struggled with my weight. It has been a source of great frustration. There were times when I was desperate to buy the newest written “word” on how to lose weight. I would spend hard-earned money to buy books written by someone with possibly more issues than I, to tell me how to get control of my eating. Don’t we waste money, making others wealthy, when we have information on anything that we will ever deal with in life, between the covers of the Holy Bible?
The help that comes from our Bible, is a one time cost that keeps on giving year after year or is available free of charge from the internet. Why do we search for the worlds thinking and help when we have God’s help so readily available? I don’t know the answer to that, other than the enemy of us all, wants us to believe that our help will come from anywhere but God.
A daily appointment with our Bible will bring God’s help to us in the most unexpected ways. God yearns for us to seek His help first. The help of the One who knew us before we were born. His plan of help for us, is greater than any other sinful human can give us. There are no perfect self help authors out there. They are just like us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of the Lord.
Scriptures For Today:
Psalms 37:5
5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. (NASB)
Psalms 139:13-17
13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (NASB)
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASB)
Prayer For Today:
Hello Father! We pray that we seek Your help before any other. You know the innermost workings of our souls. You know our failings and You desire our success more than any other. You have written words to guide and change our lives. We pray for the desire to read Your word daily and live out Your instructions for our life. Forgive us of our sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
©2015 Kathy Ledbetter. All Rights Reserved.