"His Perfect Way"

"His Perfect Way"

  
      "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31). 

    I have long shared this Biblical affirmation in the sense of affirming the pristine perfection of God's purpose and working.  Everything He does is completely as it should be, with no alternative method or application offering a better way of doing things. 

    Recently, while preparing a message concerning our devotion and obedience to the will of God, the thought occurred to me that David's statement also offers a personal meaning for His trusting sons and daughters in Christ.  God's way for us is always the perfect option, regardless of appearance, or any discomfort and sacrifice it may involve.  Indeed, just as medicine is often bitter in the mouth, but beneficial to our health, so the will of God sometimes involves initial challenge and difficulty.  This may cause faith and obedience to seem less than the perfect way for us.  Other paths may beckon us with apparently better and easier alternatives that gleam brightly to our senses and understanding because they appear to promise a smoother path.  "There is a way that seemeth right to a man..." (Proverbs 16:25).

   "...But the end thereof are the ways of death."  Ways other than God's will always lead to destruction.  Short term pleasures of disobedience to God end in the long term plight of walking in ways less than His perfection.  Any path that diverges from the narrow way that leads to life assures outcomes much inferior to that which our Lord promises as the result of trust and obedience (Matthew 7:14).  Yes, as for God, His way is perfect, both in that which He does, and in that which we do in response to His will for our lives. 

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
(Psalm 1:1-6).