Contributed by: Shamsuddin Rattani on 11th Nov 2003 at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/thepointofview
Sometimes, what’s important to us isn’t that important to God; and what’s important to God isn’t that important to us.
For example, what may be important for us is to receive God’s blessings. That might not be as important to God as we may think. What may be important to God is that we learn His ways. That might not be as important to us as God would want it to be.
Today, we’d like to look at the importance of learning God’s ways.
- What are God’s ways?
- Why is it so important to learn God’s ways?
God’s ways are related to God’s will, but they’re a little different. God’s will is what He wants to accomplish. God’s ways are how He accomplishes it.
It’s not enough for us to just know what God wants—His will; we also need to know how God does it—His ways.
We are going to look at just one aspect of God’s ways, but it’s the most important aspect for us to know: how God deals with us. This aspect of God’s ways are the disciplines He uses to change our hearts. Only God knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, and only He knows how to change our hearts.
God’s disciplines, His ways, are naturally mysterious to us—ROM 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments [disciplines] and unfathomable His ways!. That’s why we sometimes struggle in His dealings with us, because we don’t fully understand. We need to recognize that our obedience is only according to our understanding, but God’s discipline is according to His understandin.
Even though we don’t always understand what He is doing, we need to trust in Him that His ways with us are always right—DEU 32:4 The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. We don’t have to fully understand God in order to trust in Him. In fact if we only trust in Him when we understand Him, we’re only revealing our stubborn self-sufficiency—PRO 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. The greatest proof of our faith in God is to trust in Him in the midst of trials that we don’t understand. He knows us better than we do, and He knows what He is doing in our lives.
As we learn to trust in God and His dealings with us, we begin to learn His ways with us, how He disciplines us. Understanding comes after obedience and submission, not before. We want to understand before we obey and submit, but God’s order is: “Obey, then you’ll understand.” Example of Job—Satan said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” [“Look at all the blessings You’ve given him! Remove those blessings, and he’ll curse You!”]
It makes life easier for us—PRO 13:15 Good understanding [of God’s way] produces favor, but the way of the treacherous is hard. If we don’t understand God’s ways with us, His discipline; then it becomes hard and grievous to us. God’s ways can become unbearable if we don’t understand them (Joseph). Notice that verse doesn’t say “blessings”, it says “favor”—blessings are an expression of God’s goodness, favor means that He is pleased with us
Learning God’s ways enables us to make life easier for others, also---—PSA 66:16 Come {and} hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul. It doesn’t say, ”And I will tell of all the blessings He has given me.” It says, “And I will tell of what He has done for my soul” [how He has changed it for the better.] If we are learning God’s ways with us, then we can help others learn God’s ways with them. We can encourage them in the midst of their trials and testings.
Moses was able to lead Israel through the desert because He had already spent 40 years there. He knew the way through the desert by personal experience. God wants us to be able to lead others in the way of the desert.
We said in the beginning that while blessings may seem very important to us, that may not be so important to God
What is important to God is that we learn His ways. In the desert, Israel had received many blessings, but in general, they never learned God’s ways—PSA 95:8-11. Moses, on the other hand, had learned God’s ways—PSA 103:7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.
Anybody can receive God’s blessings: that is no indication that we’re right with God. God’s blessings are not a statement about us, they’re a statement about Him. Blessings don’t prove we’re good, they prove God is good.
One true indication that we’re right with God is that we’re learning His ways: how He disciplines us. We’re able to respond to His discipline in a better way, not a bitter way. We’re also able to help others respond to God’s discipline positively
How do you respond to God’s discipline? That’s the true measure of seeing if you’re right with God, and responding well brings His favor.
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