Have you ever grabbed a recipe, skimmed it, and thought, “Yeah, I get the idea—I’ll just do it my way”? Maybe you swap ingredients, skip steps, or eyeball measurements. Sometimes it turns out fine, and sometimes you’re standing in the kitchen staring at something that looks nothing like the picture, wondering what went wrong.
The truth is, the recipe wasn’t the problem. Ignoring it was.
That’s a lot like how we treat God’s direction in our lives. We like the idea of following Him, but we often want to customize the process. We keep the parts that feel comfortable and quietly leave out the ones that require sacrifice. Then, when life doesn’t turn out the way we hoped, we’re confused or frustrated.
In Matthew 19:21, Jesus talks to a man who wanted to follow Him—but only on his own terms. Jesus pointed out the one thing the man was holding back and invited him to change. It wasn’t about rules; it was about surrender.
Just like a recipe is designed to produce a specific result, obedience to God’s Word is designed to bring us the life we are searching for. When we skip steps or rewrite the way we should do things, we shouldn’t be surprised if the outcome feels off.
So maybe the question isn’t, “Why isn’t this working?”
Maybe it’s, “Am I actually following the recipe?”
Sometimes the best thing we can do is trust the One who wrote it—and follow His way, not our own.
May the God of the Bible bless you!
Bishop Bira Joshua
