What do you normally do with instruction manuals? Do you read them from cover to cover? Perhaps you’re like me and stick them in a file just in case you need them later. Oftentimes we like to feel as though we are intelligent enough to figure it out without asking for help. Is that what has happened to your Bible? Is it tucked away in case of an emergency, when you need help?

I inherited the coffee table version of our family Bible. It’s over forty years old now and was only opened to insert important family paperwork for storage, the pages still pristine and unturned. It took many years of walking with my eyes half-opened before I began reading the “Holy Scriptures, which can give you the wisdom that leads to deliverance through trusting in Yeshua [Jesus] the Messiah.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Many people will never open the Manual. 

As time marches forward, “people will be self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous…loving pleasure rather than God.” “Stay away from these people!” (2 Timothy 3:2-3) The Word says that we will, without doubt, be persecuted for choosing to follow Jesus. How do you handle the persecution of being a Christian? Get that Bible out and open the pages, then read.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living.” (2 Timothy 3:16) We don’t enjoy being corrected but it is necessary for growth. God, in his grace, gave us Scripture so that “anyone who belongs to God, may be fully equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17) Are you ready for today’s battle? Keep the Instruction Manual out and don’t be too proud to use it.