Saturday, March 4, 2017

The Saturday Series 4 "Perfect"

(Friends:  Most Saturdays for the duration of this year, I plan on sharing a message that relates to the character and nature of God, and our response thereunto.  I hope you will find it helpful, and as always, thanks for allowing us to send the devotionals to you.  Glen).


The Saturday Series - 4 

"Perfect"        
     
   
  "As for God, His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30).

   
    God's perfection involves both His character traits and His abilities.  His heart exists in complete and pristine purity, to the degree that He can do nothing morally wrong.  Nor can He be tempted to do so (James 1:13).  His mind is also infinitely wise in knowledge and understanding, enabling Him to forever perceive all reality as it actually is.  "Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee" (Psalm 139:12).  Thus, when He acts, all is done in the perfect way affirmed by the Psalmist.

   We must know, understand, and believe this to be true of our Lord.  No altar of the heart is more important to build than our determination to sacrifice any notion that God ever fails to fulfill the standard of His own perfection.  We certainly don't understand many of His workings in our lives, and trusting His heart when we cannot understand His hand greatly challenges us all.  Nevertheless, we affirm the Perfection in confidence that, as the old hymn declares, "We'll understand it better by and by."

   History will reveal the purity of God's heart, mind, and way, particularly because He administers His perfection amid the imperfections of a fallen creation.  Were the Lord a mere chess player, as it were, moving all things by simple fiat, we might better comprehend His ability to "work all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).  However, our Heavenly Father created angels and human beings with the spiritual and moral freedom to either respond to Him or reject Him.  One third of the angelic host and all of the human race chose the latter path of darkness, thus making incomprehensible to us the fulfillment of our Lord's eternal purposes.  How does Perfection accomplish its workings in the chaotic atmosphere, environment, and complexity fostered by imperfection?  We do not know.  However, the light of God's greatness and goodness shines forth even more brilliantly when we realize that He will fulfill His ultimate purposes against the backdrop of darkness.  "The Light shineth in darkness" (John 1:5).

    Solomon commands that we "trust the Lord with all thy heart" (Proverbs 3:5).  We could not cast ourselves upon our Lord with such abandon - with all our hearts -  were He anything else than perfect in heart, character, mind, and way.  Nor will we completely commit our trust if we fail to establish within our own hearts the principle of Divine perfection.  We must build the inner altar of faith, visit it often, and declare to each other that "He hath done all things well" (Mark 7:37).  He has.  God can be and do nothing less than perfection.  We will find Him fulfilling His standard in this moment and forevermore, confirming by His grace and our trust that "as for God, His way is perfect".

"He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He."
(Deuteronomy 32:4)

Weekly Memory Verse 
   Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.
(Ephesians 4:31)

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