Daily Devotional for Tuesday September 23, 2003

Reading the instructions can save us so much pain and heartache

(1 Samuel 12:15)

Reading the instructions can save us so much pain and heartache. Last Thursday morning, I was in my office and very hungry. I looked in my desk drawer and found a cup of Quaker Instant Oatmeal. It was not exactly the best breakfast in the world, but at that point I was hungry and it would have to do. So I went into the room where the microwave was, pulled off the lid, filled it up with water, put it into the microwave, turned the microwave to 2 minutes, and went back into my office to work.

I answered a couple of emails, got a phone call, had a problem come up in the office that had to be dealt with, and a good 20 minutes went by before I remembered that I was starving and breakfast was waiting for me. I opened the door of the microwave up, and there to my horror was my breakfast...ALL OVER THE MICROWAVE! Globs of Quaker Golden Brown Sugar Oatmeal all over the inside of the microwave.

It might have helped if I had taken just a few minutes to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. If I had, I would have known that there was a dashed line on the inside of the cup that showed you how much water to put in. If I had, I would have known that I should have only set the microwave for 1 minute. If I had, I would have enjoyed a good bowl of oatmeal for breakfast instead of spending 10 minutes cleaning it up from the inside of the microwave.

The point is that we live our lives at times the same way I cooked that cup of oatmeal. WE DON'T FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. We are in a hurry to fill a need in our life, and don't take the time to do it the right way...God's way. Please, don't miss what I just said to you. We are in a hurry to fill a need in our life, and don't take the time to do it the right way....God's way. The end result is usually a mess that we end up spending lots of time and energy cleaning up.

God gave us His Word, the instruction manual, so that we can live life correctly. He doesn't make us guess, and have to figure out this life by ourselves. Quaker Oats didn't make people figure out for themselves how to cook that cup of oatmeal. They put instructions on the outside so you could cook it correctly. God didn't leave us to figure out for ourselves how to live. He gave us His Word so that we would know how to live this life correctly.

I love you and care about you so much. I pray today that you will take the time to READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL. READ GOD'S WORD! It will save you so much pain and heartache if you do. Life is challenging enough without adding to the problems because we were too lazy, too much in a hurry, to read God's Word. READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller