JDL - Direction Two - Look Outside Yourself

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:15-20 (ESV))

In the movie Star Wars our hero, Luke Skywalker, is constantly told that the answer to his life is found inside himself. He is continually told to “Look inside yourself.” I once heard someone express the sentiment like this: suppose you were on an airplane which was about to land at your destination, and the pilot came over the intercom and said that since you were close to the destination that he was going to turn off all the instruments, close his eyes, and let his inner self help him to land the plane. The speaker went on to suggest that he might rush the cabin and tell the pilot to turn on all the instruments, open his eyes and use everything he could to bring the plane in for safe landing.

How many self-help books, how many programs, how many preachers, teachers and motivational speakers tell us that the answer to life lies inside of us? Philosophers, cults, sects, mystics, even some theologians want us to look inside ourselves for the answers to life’s questions. But can we find the answers to life’s questions by looking inside ourselves, or do we just find more questions?

Later we will look at David’s words in Psalm 51 which remind us that we are conceived and born in sin. These words ought to give us some clue as to what we will find if we look inside ourselves to find guidance and direction and the answers to life’s questions. The Apostle Paul struggled with looking inside himself as well. He wanted to do good, but it just was not inside him to do good. What was inside him was to do the evil he did not want to do. He even admitted that it was sin that was dwelling inside him. How can sin be a good thing to guide us into doing good? It simply cannot.

The answers to life’s questions are not found inside ourselves. If we look inside ourselves, all we find is sin and evil. How then do we live? Where do we go for guidance? Where do we find direction in our lives? Where do we find purpose? We have to go outside ourselves to find the answers to life’s questions. We have to go outside ourselves to find guidance, direction and purpose for our lives. But we cannot just go anyplace outside ourselves for the right answers.

There are many places to go for guidance, direction, and answers to life’s questions. Yet, all these places may rightly be divided into two places. We can either go to a place of man-made, man-given advice, or we can go to a place of God-given advice.

When your car breaks down, you take it back to the dealer, the place where it was built. If anyone would know best how to work on your car, it would be the manufacturer. Likewise, when it comes to questions of life, the best place to go would be to go back to the manufacturer, the Creator, even our Lord. How and where do we go for His help? We go to His Word, the Bible.

About this book, the Bible, it is my contention that the Bible is the Word of God. It is a book unlike any other book. It is a book with authority and a book with power. The authority of the Bible is the ultimate and absolute authority of God. The power of the Bible is that it does what it says. No other book, no Science book, no Math book, no Chemistry book, no Physics book, no other book can do what the Bible can do. It is God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation.

When we have questions, we could go to a fly-by-night shop of human understanding of life, but we will want to remember that any answer we get from a human perspective will be an answer tainted by sin. Yes, God created a perfect world, in the beginning, but the world in which we now live is a world tainted by the fall into sin, and so this sin has infected everything and everyone.

I will encourage you to look outside yourself, to look to God and let Him speak to you through His Word. And remember, any translation is a good translation. Do not look for a translation that puts something the way you think you want to hear it. Let God speak without trying to hear it from any particular angle.

Remember this about the Word of God, the Bible; God has only one interpretation, only one message He wants to give. He does not gives us His Word as a book of confusion in which it means many things to many people; that would distort what He wants to say. How would you like it if you wrote a love letter to your beloved and s/he could not figure out what you meant, or maybe it meant something different than what you intended. You certainly intended one message, a message of love, and you did not intend for him/her to question and wonder what you meant. The same is true with God’s love letter, His Word, the Bible, to us. His message is a message of love concerning the gift of His Son and His Son’s life for our forgiveness. Thus, if we have a hard time understanding His Word, or if we should think there is any discrepancy with His Word, the problem is not with His Word, but with us. Sometimes our finite minds have a hard time understanding our infinite God, yet, as we continue to read His Word, His Holy Spirit will continue to work through that Word to bring us to a better understanding of what He is saying to us.

We begin our Jesus-directed life by looking outside ourselves to our good and gracious God. We look to Him where He comes to speak to us, His Word.

Think About
Concerning a reading from the Bible, have you ever had someone ask you, “So, what does this passage mean to you?” or “How do you feel about this passage?” These are ways we have of looking inside ourselves. Instead, as you read the Bible ask, “What is God telling me in the plain words He is speaking to me?”

Prayer
Father, forgive me when I trust more in myself for the answers to life’s questions. Forgive me when I attempt to put my understanding into Your Word instead of letting Your Word speak as Your Word. Bless my reading and hearing of Your Word that I might rightly understand and believe. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.