Accounting is a science of processes, rules, facts and order. When the process is done correctly, everything balances. If your numbers don’t balance, something is wrong. Accounting has no feeling. It’s just facts. Close does not count.

It was around 2 AM when the bright idea struck me. For hours I had been trying to find my mistake…I was a nickel off. So, I chose to make up my own rule. I’ll balance my way. I taped a nickel to my homework and went to bed. Several days later the professor was handing out the homework assignments and mine was at the bottom. The weight of the nickel caused the paper to hang down along with his comments in red with my grade marked “F”.

A funny but true story. But when I think about it, don’t we do this with God? God has given us His Way, “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:3. Our Creator God designed everything. He gave us His instruction book, the Bible, so that all people could have… “I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10. But like all facets of God’s great design, there is order. The stars & planets don’t make up their own rules. Even our bodies are made of countless balances, pressures, specific chemical makeup and synchronized functions.

Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  This is defined in Romans 10:9, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Then we will receive the Peace & Confidence of knowing “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and He is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” John 10:27-30.

If you want the “Peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7), we must stop making up our own rules and do our homework. Try this. For 30 days before your feet hit the floor in the morning, pray Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” On May 15 I would love to hear how God has whispered to your heart. Do your homework.