Week 34: Knowing God’s Ways

He made know his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. Psalm 103:5

During forty long years in the wilderness, the people of Israel appear to have learned very little about God’s ways in dealing with His people. They saw His mighty acts—such as the parting of the waters of the Red Sea and the provision of the manna for them—but they never seemed to learn God’s redemptive purpose for His people. They never got the vision of whom they were supposed to be.

Moses, on the other hand, possibly because of his own experience of waiting on God in the previous forty years, had learned to understand God’s ways. He knew God intimately. As a leader he knew what God expected of His people and why God required their obedience from their hearts.

If we are to be used by God in His service and to be used effectively, we need to know God’s will and God’s ways, not only His mighty acts. Young children, when asked by their parents to do something, often ask “why” they are required to do it. Jesus told us that unless we become as little children, we shall never enter the kingdom. Perhaps we should spend more time asking God “why” so that He can teach us His ways. Jesus taught us that we are no longer servants, but sons and daughters of God. In other words, God wants to take us into His confidence and have an interactive relationship with us.

When the going got tough in the wilderness, the people of Israel quickly started complaining and asked Moses to take them back to Egypt because they had enough food there. Moses, on the other hand, could see that God’s purpose was not to take His people back to bondage but to refine them so that they could occupy the land flowing with milk and honey which He had promised to give them.

Similarly, God is preparing us, as His people, to take up residence with Him in a new home, which he has prepared for us in heaven. That home is for those whom Christ has redeemed and who live lives in obedience to Him, being thereby perfected in Christ’s own image so that then we can take our rightful place in heaven. The trials and difficulties we have in this world are sometimes necessary for us to grow in grace and in the likeness of Christ.

As you embark upon the duties of today, use the verse of this hymn as a prayer:

Teach me thy way, O Lord, Teach me Thy way 
Thy gracious aid afford, Teach me Thy way
Help me to walk aright, More by faith less by sight
Lead me with heavenly light, Teach me Thy way.

John Langlois
Guernsey, Channel Islands

– This article comes from AI’s “No Higher Calling,” a devotional for lawyers.