Following Instructions

I wonder if you have ever tried to do something that you thought was not what it should be, and you have proceeded to do it how you think it should be.

Recently I wanted to make three of my childhood favourite biscuits. My Mum used to make them every week for all the workers on the family farm, for morning tea. Two of these biscuits I knew how to make quite well, as I have made them many times before. The other biscuit was called an ANZAC biscuit (the famous biscuit used in WW1 by the Australian and New Zealand army), The recipe I used was a recipe that my Mum had used for over fifty years, so I knew this was a tried recipe. The recipe used cups, which I thought were not accurate enough, so I converted it to grams, a more modern way of measuring.

After mixing the ingredients and baking them in the oven, they came out flat and terrible. I was a little annoyed, as this is not what I had expected. I then contacted my Mum to ask what went wrong. She asked if I followed the recipe. I said yes, and she suggested I use less sugar. I tried again and had a similar result, but they tasted even worse than the first batch. She then told me to use more flour. The biscuits turned out dry and crumbly, not good at all. Before long I had my sisters involved, as they had also used the same recipe. They even baked them and sent me their photos of how nice they were.

The conversations between my Mum, my sisters and myself were all about how theirs had all worked and how mine had not, and they suggested I try doing this or that. We even discussed how the ingredients must be slightly different here in the UK than they were in Australia and this might be why they were not working out.

I thought I would try once more, and this time I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Follow the recipe”. When I looked at the recipe, I decided to use the cup measurements instead of my new converted, more modern measurements. I mixed it all up and put them in the oven, exactly as the recipe said, and to my amazement they came out perfect.

It was then I felt God speak to me, saying, “It is the same for many people. They do not like what I have set out for mankind from the beginning. Many think My ways are old and need changing. They try making their own way of doing life and when it does not work out, even try going to other means and ways to fix what is wrong”. In Isaiah 55:8, it tells us, ‘“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways”, says the Lord’.

Like me and my biscuits, many try to do life their own way and wonder why they get hurt and find themselves in all kinds of difficulty. Many even try to find alternative ways of bringing healing into their lives, seeking advice from all kinds of different people and therapies, which creates even more bondage for them.

Only God has the perfect recipe for mankind to live and do life here on this earth. His word and His ways are perfect. They are still ‘the same yesterday, today and forever’. It is a tried recipe, that will work, if we choose to apply it into our lives. When we do this, our lives will turn out just as the Maker intended. We may have tried to do things our own way, but perhaps, today, we should stop to think whether we are following what God is saying and asking us to do. You might like to say the following prayer:

Prayer: Father, I want to thank You for Your word and Your truth, and for giving me the recipe on how to live life. Forgive me for when I have chosen to live life my way, in my own understanding, Forgive me for when I have tried to change what You have set in place and have even sought advice and healing from other ways, rather than Yours. Help me, Father, to look only to You and Your word from this day forward. Amen.