You look so good in white…

My husband and I were hanging out on the couch after the kids were all tucked away for the night. You know  the cliché saying that you can have a ton of channels, but nothing good is on t.v. Well, it was one of those nights with no good shows.  Somehow, my husband found out that we had a whole set of music channels that we never even knew we had hiding out in the 400’s on the t.v.

We found the 80’s music channel and sang away to the songs from our junior high and high school years. We were having a great time, the kind where you bond over the fact that you were both alive during the same era and can compare notes about what different songs meant to you in your high school years.

We quickly found out, as we were singing at top volume, that many times, we didn’t actually know the exact words to the songs. He had always made fun of me in the past for singing, “You look so good in white…” to a country song when the words were actually, “You look so good in love…” (I thought it was nice of the guy in the song to comment on how good she looked in her outfit.)

As the night wore on, we had some hilarious moments as “Boys of Summer” was sung as “Poison Summer” (must have been a bad summer). And the list could go on.  Needless to say we had a great time laughing with and at each other.

I bring all this up because many times, people think they know what the Bible says and say it at top volume without ever checking to see if it is really Scripture. For example, as a mom of 6, I often hear people quote, “Well, God will never give you more than you can handle.” I would always nod and say, “Yes” in a knowing way.

Then one day, I wanted to find the Scripture that said that so I could write about it, and guess what? I couldn’t find it. I found the quote about how He provides a way of escape when we are tempted, but not a direct quote saying He won’t give us circumstances we can’t handle.  You know why?  Because it’s not there.  In fact, many times, when those “too hard for us” circumstances come up, we are supposed to lean on Him, not hope that we can handle them alone.

Another one people say a lot is, “God helps those who help themselves”.  Scripture chapter and verse?  None.  That’s because God says

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5 (NIV) (courtesy of Biblegateway.com)

Okay, so what’s the action point with this devotional?  Let’s all be Bereans when we hear someone quote from the Bible.  They are the people in Acts 17:11 who listened with eagerness to the message the apostle Paul gave, but also constantly checked it with Scripture.

These days it is even easier to check the Scriptures, what with the internet Bible sites and all.  Don’t just take someone’s word for it, or you may be quoting something at the top of your lungs that isn’t really truth.  Or even worse, you might be living something that isn’t truth.  That would be a bummer.