God's Wisdom In A Nutshell

Hello,

Self help books can limit our lives if we do not go to God with our newfound ideas and goals. Before I became a full following Christian I used to read self help books to get through difficult issues in life. One of the books I read teaches the reader to set up a schedule of waking up early and spending time in meditation, exercise, reading, journaling and silence.  (I’m not a person who meditates because it is a form of mysticism* but I do meditate and memorize the Word of God.) The premise of the book is to motivate you to do more and thus accomplish your goals.

There is no mention of the Bible or the Lord in this book, the author simply tells his readers that we have a power within us that can accomplish anything we desire.  Avid bible readers will determine that this book is off track because it promotes the “self” as our god, instead of learning about the Lord and relying on Him. The author went on to say that at one point in order to obtain his goals,  he worked 365 days in one year! Clearly, he was putting his goals before the Lord. Working so much stresses our immune system and opens us up to disease. The author was indeed a victim of a lowered immune system because he was diagnosed with stage four cancer not long after that extremely taxing year. What was sad to find out through his online talks, was that he never spoke of the Lord and never acknowledged God’s part in healing him when he came through the illness. the author appeared to put self effort and mindset to get over his diagnosis.

“Can bulrushes flourish were there is no water? While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither. Such is the fate of all who forget God. The hope of the godless comes to nothing. Everything they count on will collapse. They are leaning on a spiderweb. They cling to their home for security, but it won’t last. They try to hold it fast but it will not endure.”(Job 8:12-15)

This verse proved true in the author’s life. He lost his home and half of his business and was in major credit card debt. We learn from Scripture that those who rely on self are leaning on a spider web.  We cannot endure successfully without God. Many parts of our life will suffer and often times it can be our health. Money can’t buy perfect health.

There is a story in the Bible that tells us what happens when we try to make ourselves famous by working hard and grinding day in, day out to achieve success. It’s the story of Babel and it is located in the book of Genesis. In Babel the people decided they wanted to make their name famous by building a tower that went up to the sky. The Lord saw what they were doing and came down to confuse the language of the people. Without a common language they couldn’t communicate and thus couldn’t continue building the tower. God had a reason for changing their language.