October 2

Oct 2 - Today from Proverbs 2 we look at verse 8
"For He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones."

We are to be in a relationship with the Lord, but it's not meant to be a 50/50 mutual partnership. I think that sometimes we forget that He is God - the Supreme. Even if He never redeemed and restored us, we should live in servitude and obedience simply because of who He is. But, praise be to God He did redeem and restore us! We have tasted the goodness of His love, and we have been given evidence of the immeasurable depth of that love by what it cost Him to redeem and restore us. We can live confidently knowing that He is worthy of our servitude and obedience because He has a great and eternal plan - a plan that will not fail. And we have been privileged to serve with Him in that great and glorious plan. His plan, not ours. Wisdom is bound in growing in our understanding and participation in that plan. Wisdom plants our feet on the course of that plan. Wisdom guides us in the way of that plan. Because it's His plan, He constantly guards the course and protects the way. Our strength and assurance is that none will be able to ultimately thwart His purposes. We have been entrusted with a sure thing - if we will but trust Him, grow in wisdom, and walk by faith.
It's not a 50/50 proposition. It's not "I will do my best to 'keep Your list' if you will see to it that 'my list' is also fulfilled." This is not a relationship, it is the offer of a partnership, and not a very good one. If we have a proper relationship with the Lord, there should only be one plan - HIS! His is the course of the just. Faithful ones are those faithful to Him and His purposes. We can never properly say, "He failed me, I will no longer serve Him." He only 'fails us' (sic) when we are dictating what the plan should be. We can be following Him in a relationship where He may appear to fail, but our understanding is so limited that we cannot properly make that judgment. If failure of our expectations were God's failures were true, then the prophets of the Old Testament all failed and were let down by God. They were faithful to proclaim God's words of warning and call to repentance - often at a great personal cost to themselves - only to see the words rejected and the people pay a severe penalty. Jeremiah dearly loved his countrymen and preached his heart out to them, only to be persecuted, mocked, imprisoned and rejected. He was faithful, and he 'failed'. At least his plan failed. His plan appeared to be that if he were faithful to deliver such a hard word to his countrymen at such a personal cost to himself, that God would withhold His judgment and the people would be spared defeat and captivity by such a cruel power. For 40 years Jeremiah spoke, but nobody listened. Did Jeremiah fail God? No, he was faithful to God. Did God fail Jeremiah? No, it wasn't Jeremiah's plan to begin with, so there could be no failure.
God's greater plan always contains restoration. The O.T. pattern of Israel is disobedience, punishment, and restoration. In fact, that is the greater picture of God dealing with the whole of mankind from Genesis to Revelation. We walk such a tiny part of that path in this life that we cannot possibly make a judgment on failure or success. We have to trust God - just as Jeremiah and all of the other O.T. prophets did. We have an advantage over them; we live in the age of revelation (1 Peter 1:10-12). We see in the light what they could only see in the shadows. We see Jesus the Messiah - and His two appearances. The first appearance as the redeeming suffering servant. The second appearance as the conquering King who ultimately brings closure to God's plan in time and unites all things under God in eternity. It's awesome!
We fail when we stop seeking to know - and cease being faithful to - God's way. God never fails.