IKEA & God's Word

(posted by Ruth Abigail Smith)

I am originally from Houston, TX and in Houston we have a popular furniture store called IKEA. Now if you know anything about IKEA, you know that if you choose to purchase something from IKEA, you will end up putting it together yourself. My family is not the handiest, so putting together furniture was never a strong point for us. It was always a hassle and took forever to do! But one thing I can say is that they did not expect you do it without the proper tools and instructions, which were always included in the package. They had pictures and a step by step process that required no thinking as long as you were willing to read everything carefully and follow the directions to a T. If this was done, you were sure to have a nice looking new piece of furniture in your home.

Funny that life is a lot like that. I never thought that I would ever compare the Bible to IKEA’s instructions, but they are very similar. God has given us instructions for day to day living in His word. Yet, we insist on figuring things out for ourselves or justifying the way we want to live by customizing our lives according to personality, experience, and preference. What good are instructions if you are unwilling to use them? Or only use them when you feel like you need them? Or only follow them partially? I have learned that no one knows the product better than the manufacturer; and lucky for us the Bible is straight from the author of life Himself. We owe it to ourselves to read the instructions and then following them accordingly; God gave them to us for our benefit, but yet we work so hard to try to figure things out for ourselves when we don’t have to.

One of my favorite scriptures is Joshua 1:8. It says, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so that you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” (NLT). God has promised success and prosperity to those who follow HIS instructions. That is great news! Now I am not oblivious to the fact that there are some things that are not as easy to understand and do not seem very clear in scripture; but luckily we have direct access to God who has promised to give us wisdom and understand if we just ask for it. Even in the midst of uncertainty we can still follow those things we know to be true and trust that God will take care of the rest.

(posted by Ruth Abigail Smith)