graphic: Martha G. Brady

Do you ever have times when it seems like no matter what you try to do in a certain direction, you just can’t seem to get there?

GOD’S way is perfect?

Maybe His way is perfect, but I mess it up.

No! The way He has planned is perfect. He will guide me even when I mess up! He is GOD, not me. My actions aren’t powerful enough to mess up His plan. It might look like it for awhile, but it isn’t true!

But it seems roadblock after roadblock comes. Life circumstances keep coming up that cause me to have to take detour after detour. Maybe I misunderstood where I was supposed to go, what I was supposed to do. I keep plodding on and the roadblocks keep coming up!

Often detours and roadblocks aren’t what we think they are.

Detours are often the path GOD intended, not detours. True, they may not be the most direct way to get where we were going, but that isn’t always the plan!

Roadblocks are often designed to stop us and send us in a different direction or slow us down on the trajectory we are headed.

GOD’s way is perfect.

Maybe I misunderstood where I was supposed to go, what I was supposed to do. It could be…or maybe I just misunderstood the route I was supposed to take to get there.

I try to step back and reflect. I try to stay calm and not panic. Without Jesus as my Rock and Refuge, reflection and non-panic won’t be helpful. It will only be glorified stoicism.

GOD’s way is perfect.

It seems like I will never get to my final destination. The finish line is in view. And I realize my goal isn’t what I thought it was!

For example, sometimes I think my goal is to complete a task but when I come to the end of the project, I realize that my goal was really to make a certain person or group of people proud of me or cause them to accept me on a certain level.

How did I realize this was my real goal? When the task was done and I see the results of my real goal, I feel joy and satisfaction in accomplishing a task I set out to do.

If I don’t achieve that result, I will find an emptiness that I didn’t expect or anger at a person or group that I can’t logically explain in the context of a job well done. When those set in, I need to back up and question whether I was being honest with myself re my goal in the first place.

GOD’s way is perfect. My motives will often be wrong. My actions will be wrong…or at best, mixed. But He is still guiding all along through the process because He is GOD, not me.

During times of panic, I can run to Him. He is my Rock.

During times of failure and sin, He forgives and is my Refuge.

During times when I am lost, His Word guides me.

GOD’s way is perfect.

So here are words of encouragement for you…and me, today:

For by you I can run against a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God—his way is perfect;
    the word of the Lord proves true;
    he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

“For who is God, but the Lord?
    And who is a rock, except our God?
This God is my strong refuge
    and has made my way blameless.

II Samuel 22:30-33