“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10-11)
If you have ever put together one of the ‘Lego’ kits that makes a ship or a particular character, you know how many pieces (tiny pieces at that) it takes to make it look like the picture on the box lid. You also know that once those pieces are mixed in with others from other sets, getting back to the original design is quite the chore. O, it’s possible, but… the instructions become really important. You spend a lot of time studying the pictures and looking for specific pieces that match in order for it to resemble its original intent. Operating according to the design is hard enough for most of us when we are working right from the kit, but redeeming the design from a muddled state of affairs requires patient reliance on the ‘One’ who designed the kit in the first place.
Our God, and our Creator, has told us how this life works. He has given us words of wisdom to direct us like, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), and “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4), as well as “Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved” (Rom 10:13). Now if we follow these instructions, God assures us that we will know peace, joy, contentment, and all that is His will be at our disposal. Our problem is we desire autonomy and want to do it our own way, rejecting God’s design… but isn’t that how we end up with the muddled pile of “Legos’ in the first place?
In order to redeem our lives from these muddled piles we have made, we must recognize whom and what we are dealing with. God is “Absolute Perfection”, having no fault or flaw. Therefore, His design is determined and can be participated in only by following His Word (the instruction manual). It is when we “delight” or find enjoyment in His Word, digging into it with a thirst for understanding; and having trusted Him because we have gazed intently into His instructions and obtained a rational faith in His perfect (flawless) nature; it is only then He is able to give us “the desires of our heart.” There is no other way, His is perfect!
I pray that you go beyond the casual glance at His Word today and dig deep into His instructions. I pray that as you find delight and understanding in Him, the gates of His love will open, spilling hope and joy into your muddled soul. God wants to redeem you, He desires to pour into your life all joy and contentment, but you have to do it the “Perfect Way.”
Choose Him, Choose Wisely…
Written by David Brown: David Brown is a husband, father, grandfather, Pastor with a Masters of Religious Studies and a Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religions. Dave is the Associate Pastor of Pemberton’s First Baptist Church. He is the author of two devotional books, “From a Chair by the Window.” And “#PrayerWinsThe Day”.
