An Unchanging Standard

Bible Reading: James 1:17-25

As Mason scooped up a large spoonful of cookie dough, his mom chuckled. “Hold on, Mason! We’re making cookies, not frisbees. Here, let me make a model for you.” Mom scooped up some dough and made it into a small round ball. “There! We’ll put the cookies in the oven after I get Brinley out of her crib.”

When Mom returned, she looked at the cookies. Some were small and others were too large. “I tried, Mom,” said Mason, “but they wouldn’t come out right.”

“Did you compare each scoop of dough with the one I made?” asked Mom.

“Well, I did for a while, but then I just compared each scoop to the one I made before it. If it looked too small, I made the next one bigger. If it was too big, I’d make the next one smaller.”

“But your standard changed for each cookie,” said Mom. “No wonder they’re all different sizes.” She added a little dough to some cookies and took a little away from others to make them more the same size. “Mason, remember our conversation yesterday about Christians following a different standard than the world does?”

“Yeah. You said that just because everyone else seems to be doing something or says it’s okay doesn’t make it right.”

“Exactly. Today, instead of comparing your cookies to the model I made, you compared them to various ones you made, and they weren’t all the same size. We need to be careful not to make the same mistake in life and compare our actions to what other people say and do, because they don’t all live by the same standard. We need to compare ourselves to the unchanging standard God has given us.”

“That’s the Bible, right?” said Mason. “It tells us how we should live as Christians.”

“Right,” Mom said. “The Bible gives us the standard, and Jesus is the model. Because we trust in Him, He’s freed us from sin and has given us the Holy Spirit, who shapes us to be more like Him—just like I shaped your scoops of dough to look more like mine.” Mom put the sheet of cookies into the oven. “Jesus sets the standard of how we should live as Christians, and He’s the example we should compare ourselves to, not other people.”

-Catherine Runyon

How About You?

What standard do you use to determine how you should live? Many things will change in your life, but the standard God gives us in His Word never changes. Because our sin makes us fall short of God’s perfect standard, Jesus met that standard for us. If you trust in Him, He has freed you from sin’s power and given you the Holy Spirit so you can follow His example. God is always the same, and His standard never changes. Model your life after Jesus.

Today’s Key Verse: Malachi 3:6 I am the Lord, I do not change. (NKJV)

Today’s Key Thought:

God doesn’t change