Formulas matter. If we follow the formula, the cookies will turn out right. If we follow the formula, the destination on the GPS will end up right outside our car window. If we follow the formula, graduation day will come. Formulas matter. Formulas work.

Formulas offer promises of things that humans need: consistency and confidence. The consistency of a formula promises that if a + b equals c, then the next time and the time after that, a + b will equal c. This consistency provides confidence that a result will come from certain efforts and movements. With the right amount of milk, flower, eggs, salt, sugar, butter, effort, heat, and time, delicious cookies will result every time.

Formulas always work because mathematics tells the truth about what we know and what we do not know. If you are like me at all, you have attempted cookies and ended up with tasteless biscuits, you have followed directions to the doughnut shop and only found surplus tires, and you have been less-than successful in school at times. How did the formulas not work?

Many times formulas fail us because we do not understand or we miss the variables. The worst cookies are the ones that are missing an ingredient. They do not turn out right because a variable was missed (cookies without sugar do not come out right… yes… sugar-free cookies are wrong).

In Matthew 4 we see Jesus in the desert, tempted by the devil. The devil invites a very hungry, fasting Jesus to turn stones into bread. The devil invites Jesus to use His power to satisfy His need for food. In this moment, Jesus resists this powerful temptation by replying with Scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Can you imagine if much later, when faced with the multitude of hungry people, Jesus quoted this Scripture to the disciples? Can you imagine if Jesus thought that the formula that He needed to apply to hunger every time was to encourage the hungry person to live off of God’s Word?

This is what happens in life. We see God do something that is good and right, and we assume that we have found the formula. We go around telling hungry people to live off of God’s Word rather than feeding them. We look at our own lives with frustration when we feel that things do not come out as we planned. Sadly, and too often, in doing so, we leave out or misunderstand important variables.

The formula for Jesus is to listen to God and to do what He says. In one desert moment, God did not want Jesus to use His power to create bread and meet a need of hunger. In another moment, God very much wanted Jesus to use His power to create bread and meet a need of hunger.

The formula is not about bread or no bread; the formula is hearing God and doing what He says out of a place of belief.

Today, take just one step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take looks like abandoning your formulas. Maybe God wants you and I to humble ourselves enough to admit that we do not know all of the variables in our situation. Maybe God is asking you to be hungry for a season so that you can feed others later. Maybe God wants you to give up the control, confidence, and consistency of your formulas and just lean on Him.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Insights on the temptation of Jesus: Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992.