Our Ways, His Ways
Purifying your thoughts, actions, and ways will lead you to closer God's perfect plan for your life.
"When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. He shall offer them before the Lord to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean"
Leviticus 12:6-7
Ancient times did not have modern medical care. Childbirth was dangerous, painful, and messy. Do you ever wonder why there was such detailed instructions for what the people had to do? Why would the Bible detail instructions for what to do after having children?
The people in that time and in those places needed help. They needed instructions that could protect and purify the people. The purity helps open the door to God's presence. God's instructions detail not only a physical process. It always connects everything to a deeper spiritual truth. God's ways are higher than our ways. In both our vulnerable moments, like childbirth, and moments of strength God provides a way back to healing and help.
“The nations will fear the name of the Lord, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain...The children of your servants will live in your presence"
Psalms 102:15, 25-28
David contrasts the human and the divine. Our physical lives have limits. We will perish. We are limited in our understanding and our time on this planet. God set the foundations of the earth and remains beyond when we fade from our time here.
David does not say that all people will live in God's presence. He specifically says the children of your servants. There is a way that opens the door for the presence of the Lord to impact one's lives and their descendants. The way to living as an heir is to become like the servant king. Humility requires a right understanding that God is God and I am not. How does this passage enhance our view of God and remind us to live with numbered days?
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave...You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!”
Song of Songs 8:6, 13
Have you ever been let down in love? How have your past experiences shaped your expectations of love and how you love? God's love is unconditional. How does perfect love change your ability to love? How does how God loves you contrast or compare with the love you have known?
“Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great...The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes."
Jeremiah 36:7, 24-25, 30
God wants to reveal the true and the false in our lives. The word wicked appears a lot in the bible and comes from the idea of twisting truth like twisting the wick of a candle. The enemy of your life wants to twist God's truth to get you to turn from Him and doubt your identity.
Ask God to examine your heart and reveal if there is anything that is not from Him? The people in the text who did not fear Him or tear their clothes were the ones who thought they were right and did not need to change.
"Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk...We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”
Acts 14:3, 8-10, 15, 17, 22-23
To this day Paul is one of the best examples of a person who was walking one way and whose life was radically transformed by God's ways. In his ways, Paul was a murderer and persecutor of the followers of Jesus. In God's ways, Paul was one who brought healing to the lame and proclaimed the good news about Jesus to all people.
Imagine how the lame man saw himself before meeting Paul. He would likely have been socially outcast, lacked any meaningful social relationships, and felt worthless. Part of the purification process that comes when we walk in God's way is a cleansing of our mind, body, and spirit. God's redemptive, unconditional love and perfect timing brought healing and restoration to the man who was lame.
Where could God's ways purify your heart, mind, and soul today? Where have you settled in patterns or perceptions of who you are or who God is that need to prepare room for more of God's presence? God wants to draw you closer, fill you deeper, and use you like Paul to change the lives of others today.