God's Words, Man's Ways

UV 1007/10,000 God’s words, Man’s Ways God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Numbers 23 v 19 Man is not born a liar but we learn to lie as we grow. All of us at some time or other indulge in some form of lying and justify it as “white lies.” We change as we age so much that in different stages of our lives, we have completely different personalities, opinion, beliefs and habits. We resemble the young Jacob in our cunning and deceptiveness. God is not like us. He never lies. He does not change. He does not vacillate. He is the only constant in a world where change is constant. If He has promised something, He will do it without an iota of doubt. If He has spoken, it will happen accordingly. Balaam, the prophet rightly understood the nature of both God and man. He did not expect an absolute level of integrity in man but he knew God to be absolutely truthful, resolute and capable of executing His every intent and fulfilling His every purpose and promise. This uni-verse has practical implications for our daily lives: One, we need to trust God completely and believe His promises. There are two aspects of our trust: one, is He willing to do what He has promised us? Two, Is He capable of doing what He has promised us? The Word says that He is both willing and able to do what He has promised. He can do what He says He can do. He will do what He says He can do. He will not fail in fulfilling any promise He has spoken into our lives. A few months ago, a young lady wrote to me that her marriage has not happened even though she is getting older and ineligible. I encouraged her to hold onto her faith in the promise of God. Today, she wrote to me expressing her joy that she has found a match that exceeded her expectations. Many believers get bitter with others when in their perception that the others cheated, or lied or did not keep their word or commitment. At such times, we must remember the converse of what Balaam’s revelation of who God is: Man is not God and is liable to lie and to change his words and to break promises. But this being so, it is not an excuse for us to lie or cheat or to break our promises. Instead, we should strive to be completely truthful, honest and become known as people who keep our promises. At the same time while we ourselves should be credible, we should not become gullible and susceptible to be taken for a ride by all and sundry or even by so called believers. We need to be as Jesus said, shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves, shrewd enough not to get deceived and gentle enough not to harm or deceive others. We need to increasingly align our ways with God’s Word while testing man’s words and ways with more than a pinch of salt. Prateep v Philip