How many of us have tools? Screw drivers, wrenches, work benches and maybe even a shop full of tools. Those tools will just sit in the shop and collect dust unless you use them.
Have you have you ever gotten a new tool, you may even think of a toy. That tool was something you wanted for a long time. Finally you bring it home, it is in a box. You take it out and it is everything you have thought you ever wanted. You pick it up, you envision what you will use it for, then you put it down and walk away. The instructions lay on the floor next to the box, the new tool lays there unused, because there is so much other things in life happening, plus you will only use the tool when it is absolutely necessary. Soon the instructions slide under the workbench and the box gets thrown away. The work shop is yours, the tools are yours, but they only are collecting dust. The hammer hung on its clip, just waiting to ring out with joy at every pound, the screw drive wanting to be used to tighten a screw, to build a deck, but sits in a drawer, unused.
In life we have that very thing sitting on a shelf, we put the Bible up in its proper place, we go to church where a lot of the instruction happens, but we put that in our work shop for a better day. We get books on marriage, on how to better Christians, but they sit on the shelf in our workshop, not touched, just waiting for the right time to read them. Our lives are full of this, but we put God right there hanging on the shelf, we put bible verses on our walls, but are we acting on them, or are they just hanging there, because it looks good?
God has given us the Bible as a tool, maybe you don't like to think of it as a tool, but read it and model your life after what God wants and it changes everything. When we think it of just a book, we put it on the shelf we leave it there for a rainy day, but in Psalm 119:11 "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." It doesn't say hide the book on a shelf, to hide the words in our heart means that we need to open it, to read it, to follow what God says in it.
The sermons that we hear on Sunday are like instruction videos how we are to act, they are not just for Sunday, they are for our life. When we think this does not apply to me or we lay it down on the floor and don't say how will I use this in my life, we are doing just like we did with that new tool. Yes we may use it once, but then put it down, instead of using it moment by moment. If we put the sermon on the floor, kick it under the table, what are we saying to God?
Isn't it time to look in our workshop to see what God wants us to read, to see what He wants us to do? Are the books on the shelf, the videos collecting dust? Is it time to apply them to your life? Don't let God be like a tool, that you only pull out when there is a problem, it is time to use Him moment by moment, because He will change you.
