GOD’S WAYS WORK
Imagine for a moment you had a crystal ball that foretold the future. In 1990 it told you Apple, maker of the Mac, iphone, ipod, and ipad would become one of the most valuable companies in the world, when their stock price was $0.31 cents per share. Because of your trust in that crystal ball, you decided to act on that great insight, and bought $10,000 of stock at $0.31 per share, giving you 32,258 shares. Apple’s closing price on February 7, 34 years later, was $189.00 per share. Giving you $6,096,762 today! Can you imagine? Let that sink in!
Would you have done it? What if God told you to do it back then? What if God showed you this would happen? What if God promised you He would greatly prosper your investment by applying his wisdom to invest in that stock?
This is exactly the kind of impact God’s ways and God’s wisdom has had on my life over the last 49 years. God’s word and wisdom told me my future if I would do what it says. I kid you not. I am being truthful and honest when I tell you, in all the major ways God’s word imparts wisdom to us, I’ve applied it, implemented it, and God’s ways and wisdom worked in real life. It has been incredible.
I made the choice in 1975 to seek God first, to make it my life’s mission to build God’s kingdom and pursue His righteousness. I’ve continued that pursuit for 49 years, walking through all the great passages and decisions of a person’s life. God has provided for our material needs in miraculous ways just as he promised he would do.
I cried out, as Proverbs instructs, over and over again for God’s wisdom, as a husband, father, and pastor. I searched the scriptures, over and over. God revealed significant things to me, showing me his wise ways. God’s wisdom transformed my marriage. God in his grace helped my wife and I raise our children to genuinely love Jesus Christ. God gave me great wisdom to minister to others, to preach and teach, and greatly blessed that work.
God impressed on my heart His wisdom and ways of generosity. My wife and I followed that way. We have given away more money than the cost of our home, our cars, our clothes, and all our furnishings and possessions combined over the years. God blessed us in ways that defy logic and reason. As God said, The generous man will prosper. Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing!
God taught us the truth, that godliness with contentment is great gain, and low and behold, we’ve experienced great gain in our lives and in our souls. We have lived contentedly with what we have. By the world’s standards we live a very modest life. Yet we’re so rich.
God taught us from his word, His wise ways to discipline and correct our little children. We practiced those ways, as a result, the peace and joy in our home was astounding. We used to have people ask us to babysit our kids, just so they could be around our children. That’s the truth.
We put into practice God’s ways and wisdom related to our God-given Biblical roles as husband and wife. My wife focused exclusively on being a homemaker, raising, teaching and training our children, loving, submitting to and serving her husband, and walking earnestly with the Lord. We’ve had such a rich, meaningful life as a result. My wife has experienced such tremendous fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction in her life and so have I!
We followed God’s way of fervent devotion to prayer, of bringing all our needs, requests and burdens to God. I pray about everything. It’s astounding what God has done. What God has carried us through. Many of those trials, afflictions and tribulations should have destroyed us emotionally, even financially, yet God sustained us and comforted us. Time and time again, God miraculously provided for our emotional, financial, and material needs. Like the manna he rained down on the Israelites in the desert for 40 years. Or multiplying the widow’s oil in the time of Elisha.
My wife and I embraced the wisdom of Proverbs, that wine and luxury are not the way to wealth. That the wise man saves for the future. We live with extreme frugality. We saved in every way we could, even though it was small. God has blessed and blessed in so many ways. Like the little boy’s loaves and fish, God multiplied it.
Through trial after trial, heartbreak after heartbreak, loss after loss, hardships and tribulation, persecution, slander, false accusations, betrayals, ridicule, rejection, afflictions, sickness, troubles, catastrophes, and stress. We sought the Lord in all of it, trusting God through all of it, crying out to God through the tears, and the pain. God held us up, kept us from nervous breakdowns, giving us courage to go on. He promised us if we followed his ways, desired to live godly in Christ Jesus, living for him in this life, these were the things that would happen to us. And they did, but they’ve also made us billionaires in Heaven! They’ve made our faith deep and strong. They’ve formed and developed our character. They’ve made us desperate for God. We know a closeness to Him, a dependence on Him, we wouldn’t trade for anything.
Friends, hear me now, as many of you are in the middle of your journey. Follow God’s ways and wisdom in everything. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t ease up. Don’t get complacent. Don’t become apathetic in your pursuit of God and God’s wisdom. Cry out for it, desperately go after it. You’ll be so richly rewarded in this life, and the next. God’s ways work. You’ll be enriched, satisfied and blessed. Let Psalm 1 NLT be your strategy for life. You’ll look back, amazed at what God does.
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, and join in with scoffers. But they delight in doing everything the Lord wants; day and night they think about His law. They are like trees planted along the river bank, bearing fruit in season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do they prosper.
GOD’S WAYS WORK! God’s word told me my future if I would invest in God and his wisdom! What are you missing now? What don’t you know that you could?
You may be asking yourself, “Has everything turned out like Mark and Kathy thought it would?” The answer is, No. The primary reason? Treacherous people did significant, destructive damage to things we could not control or stop. God will bring his divine vengeance on those that did those things. We have to trust God to keep his promise to work these terrible, painful damages for good. Even though we can’t quite imagine how all that will come about. God will do his work. We have seen Him do it time and time again.
PLEASE HEED THIS WARNING! As a married couple, it’s imperative you both possess these convictions and apply these wise ways of God. One spouse, constantly disobedient to God’s wise ways in the examples I have given, will sabotage the godly efforts and final results of the other spouse. As an example, one spouse may believe and strive for frugality, while the other is a wasteful, extravagant spender. The spender will rob you and sabotage your ability to save, invest and give. I have seen it over and over again. Yes, you can still pray, trust God, and walk with God whether your spouse does or not and experience strength, joy and answers to prayer. You will be personally, eternally rewarded by God for your faithfulness to Him. But, for example, if you believe in the biblical discipline of your children and practice it, and your spouse does not, you’ll have a mess.
Do not ignore the wise ways of God! They really work! They are life giving! Ignore them and you’ll reap death.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
