Rear View Mirrors

      The Bible is not a book of answers. It is not an instruction manual for life, either. Yes, people--including me--continue to use it for those purposes, but God had something else in mind when he had people write down His Words.
      As humans, we love to take things out of context. Newspaper headlines always skew what really happened by trying to abbreviate what happened, sometimes humorously. One newspaper headline read "Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge," while another read "Two Sisters Reunited After 18 Years at a Checkout Counter." The truth of the stories gets completely undermined by the error in the headline.
      We do the same thing while reading the Bible and memorizing verses. My pastor recently pointed out that one of the most misused verses is Philippians 4:13 ("I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"). Nearly everyone uses this verse as encouragement in difficult situations or as motivation to attempt achievement at a daunting--or impossible--task. Yet no one looks at the context of the verse. In Philippians 4:10-12, Paul is explaining how he is able to be happy in difficult times, and in verse 13 explains that he can do this because Christ gives him strength. Philippians 4:13 is not a verse to empower people to accomplish the impossible (like becoming the best athlete in the world without proper training), but to encourage others and show it is possible to be joyful in life's toughest trials.
      Many other verses we use as a sort of life GPS. We pray and pray and pray, asking God for direction, open our Bibles and take the first verse we see as the rule to accomplish our goal. Often times, we follow this verse blindly as our instruction when, really, that verse has nothing to do with our situation. Context. If God gave you that verse, He wasn't telling you to blindly follow that one verse. He was showing you the passage from His Word, so you could see how He works.
       Let's say you were worrying about providing food for your family, so you ask God for help. After praying, you read Exodus 16. You would never assume that God will make manna rain down for you and your family! Instead, see this as a message of God's provision. You need not worry about tomorrow's meal because God will provide for each day's need.
       In this way, the Bible is like a rear view mirror. We must look to it to observe how God has worked in the past and see how it can keep us going forward. We have to keep our eyes forward, anticipating how He will work in the present.