IS YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM SUFFICIENT?

For a person does not prevail by his own strength. (1 Samuel 2:9)

Many of the greatest tragedies in this world have occurred because of the failure of an operating system that was never supposed to fail. A system that someone trusted.

A grid goes down, and a city is left powerless; a dam is broken because it was overwhelmed by excessive flooding; a plane falls from the sky because it encountered unexpected turbulence. We build and rely upon the greatest systems we can create … but sometimes they are simply not enough.

What’s your operating system?

YOU HAVE ONE

Everybody does. In plain reality, there are only two. You can either choose to live by your own ingenuity and strength or God’s. There are no others.

Most men and women chose the former. They may not know there is even an option. In the middle of life and all it brings, they simply push forward doing the best they can. Some are seemingly “successful” measured by the world’s standards. They seem to have a little more, do a little more, cope a little better. But anyone who’s lived this way will almost always come to a place where what they have is not enough.  

SYSTEM OVERLOAD

… happens. A marriage fails, a temptation is too great, the stress too intense. Suddenly, we realize all of our abilities are not getting us there. Even if we have acheived a lot, we know at our core there is something missing.

WHY IS THIS SO?

It is because we were not designed to function alone. C.S. Lewis discovered this. He was a very competent man and Oxford scholar, but he finally came to the end of himself and yielded to Christ. He exchanged one operating system for another, and it made an extraordinary and eternal difference.

“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”   (Mere Christianity)

Every man or woman must discover this, with God’s gracious help, and decide what operating system they will rely on. Who they will trust. What will start the engine and keep it running well all the way to the finish. What will satisfy the soul and give life. What will solve our sin and guilt problem and prepare us for this life and the life to come.

You can keep plowing away till a system overload occurs, perhaps with disastrous results. Or you can listen to the gentle Voice of the One who made you and yield to His life-changing invitation. And that choice makes all the difference.