“He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)
My home computer has really been acting kind of crazy lately. It would reboot itself when I checked my e-mail and at other times it would just inexplicably crash or shut down.
I asked a friend about it and he told me that I had so many corrupt files on my hard drive that the operating system was getting confused. He recommended that I back up all my data and reformat my hard drive. In other words, remove the operating system, all of the programs, and re-install everything.
It took most of a day to get it done, but my friend’s advice produced a miracle. It works like a charm now. All of my problems have disappeared.
As I thought about my life as an unbeliever, I realized that I used to be just as confused as my computer. I had a state-of-the-art operating system, one that the God had given me, but it just wouldn’t work with a corrupt lifestyle. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that if didn’t do something soon, I, too, would crash.
Thank God I had a friend who knew what was wrong with me. She helped me understand that God had not programmed me to live the kind of life I was living and that the lifestyle choices I had made were killing me. The more I listened to her, the more sense she made.
I realized that hope was just a prayer away when she opened God’s Word and showed me some verses. For the first time in my life, I saw myself in those words and understood that the answers to all my problems really were in that Book. Indeed, I had finally found the Owner’s Manual.
Salvation is still the greatest miracle I have ever seen. I look in the mirror today and pretty much see the same man I saw ten years ago, but inside I am changed. Corruption has given way to righteousness. I am no longer confused about where life’s taking me. My operating system is now working the way that God intended it to work.
All those bad files that were making my computer do some crazy things are now gone. When I performed a clean install, they were replaced with good files. In fact, my computer doesn’t even remember that it ever had even one corrupt file.
Salvation’s the same way. When God comes in, he replaces everything, too—A clean install. And guess what? He doesn’t remember one single sin. In fact His Word says that they’ve been forgotten just as if they’ve been cast into the deep blue sea.
The point is this: If you know someone who is about to crash, whose life is heading down the wrong road, say something to him. Help him (or her) to understand that there are answers to life’s ills. Reassure them that there’s nothing wrong with their operating system. It’s working just as it is designed, but has a few bad files.
Let them know that there really are instructions available to repair their broken life. And that if they will follow them, they, too can one day look in the mirror and thank God for the greatest miracle of all.
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