Through my years of reading the Bible and teaching it in many settings, I have concluded something about Biblical instructions. I believe when the Bible, especially the New Testament, includes specific guidelines to point us toward the things that do not come naturally.

The Bible instructs young men, married men and older men on particular ways of living. Young men are to live pure lives, and married men are to love sacrificially, and older men are to be worthy of respect. Each of these instructions is not ways we would normally behave. Our natural instincts are to want to live wild, to seek selfish gain and to let ourselves go. God’s word points us a different direction.

My encouragement when you are reading the Bible is to pay attention to the specific instructions. What does God say to someone in your situation? As a wife, a mother, a young man, as a single adult or simply as a Christian? Chances are, the actions listed are not how someone without God would act.

Perhaps God is pushing you to grow in ways that are not natural to you. Maybe the right thing to do is also the most difficult.