Seeing the Buttons

We can’t read the buttons on our oven. None of them. The buttons are little gray squares and the words inside the gray squares are written in another shade of gray. So “Bake” is indistinguishable from “Broil” or “Timer” or “Upper Oven” or any of the 15 buttons.

There is plenty of light in our kitchen. But when my wife or I want to use the oven, we have to grab a flashlight to see or ask our daughter. She can still decipher the gray on gray print, so we use her when we can. But she’s headed off to college in the fall. Ours is probably the only house in America where the following sentence has been uttered. “Where’s the flashlight, I’ve got to make dinner.”

That is what the prophetic Word does for us. It guides us like a light. We can’t see what to do, where to go, how to interpret a situation, and the Word shows us. 2 Peter 1:19 calls the word of prophecy a “light shining in a dark place.” Psalm 119 says: “The unfolding of your word gives light…” and “Your word is a light for my path.”

The text is the guide for those who belong to Christ. It gives light, guidance for any and every situation and circumstance we face. There are reasons why we don’t find guidance from Scripture. We don’t care enough to look, we don’t want to put in the energy to know, we misapply what we do know, or we simply don’t want to do it.

So many people I counsel are simply unwilling to do what Scripture says. Responses they give are: “It’s too hard.” “That won’t work.” “There must be a better way.” So no light enters their darkness and they continue to stumble and fall. Like the pastor friend who called me with a huge dilemma about his church. He wanted my wisdom. When he told me the problem I said: “You don’t need my wisdom. The Bible specifically addresses this exact problem.” Then I read the text to him. He acted like he didn’t know that already. I’m sure he did, he just didn’t want to do it.

If you don’t pay attention to the Word, you won’t know which buttons to press in life. Peter says “pay attention,” Scripture gives the light of guidance.