Now, moving on…
Proverbs 2:8 (b)-
“…And preserves the way of His saints.”
“Preserves” is the Hebrew word #8104- “Shamar”- It means to guard, save life, protect, to keep within bounds
and the phrase “the way” refers to the moral character, manner, and way of life. This phenomenon is specifically visible in the lives of Christians who have the correct intention driving their approach to God and His Word. The Word teaches us that the gifts and the callings of God are without reproach {Romans 11:29}. The NKJV says that they are irrevocable. This promise of God that once He has given something it cannot be taken away-even by God- goes far beyond the limits of just someone’s talents. In fact it transcends the whole of life. What I mean is that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights- God- and that includes our very lives- the air we breathe so this promise from Romans 11 tells us in no uncertain terms that God is not responsible for snuffing out life- for killing people! Our study verse from Proverbs 2 is a second witness to this heart manner of the Father. Once you are saved, you are called a saint {Romans 1:7} and so Proverbs 2:8 (b) applies to you. When the text teaches us that God Himself guards the way of His saints- it is referring to us….however what is not commonly understood is the agreement of God with our lives. It should be very clear that when we are receiving the Word of God and treasuring it with the intentions of hearing God more accurately and applying His Word to our lives then our paths to that application are protected and hedged about by God. But what if we are saved and we are not listening to God and thereby not following His directions? It is astounding, but God still preserves our way! The Word offers a rhetorical question in Amos 3:3 when it says, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” The answer we are to come to is “No.” Therefore, I propose to you that God, once He has saved us cannot walk with us unless He “agrees” with us. Now … to be clear, I am NOT saying that if we are saved and completely shoulder high in sin that God agrees with our behavior. That is NOT what this means. What it means is that if we are saved and in a pile of sin then God will does the following: first and foremost, He will begin to provoke us from the inside to cease and desist with our sinning; second, He will send people or situations toward us that will inhibit our proceeding in sin; third, He will maintain that which He has called and created us for until we get our heads together and return to that cause!
This is amazing to contemplate. God doesn’t agree with our actions when we are His children and we are in sin, but He will NOT forsake us AND He will not just toss up His hands with His original plan for our lives. The Moses for example. Moses was born with the call on His life to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh but when Moses murdered someone and ran into the desert for 40 years, God didn’t look down from Heaven and say: “Well dang- I guess I’ll just find someone else for this task.” No …. He approached Moses again and spoke to Him. That is not to say that if something needs doing that is assigned to us and we refuse to do it that it will not ever get done. I believe that there are times when God will use someone else if the original person loses their God given mind {Like King Saul and King David}, but if a person who is saved by God refuses to do what God created them to do in a particular instance, and then they turn around, God will still use them and extract every good thing that He put in them so that they can fulfill what they were created to fulfill.
Since I was a child, I have been called to teach the Word of God. I chose to run the other direction from this calling over and over and therefore I missed a lot of time learning and sharing and walking in the perfect path that God designed for me. All along the way, every time I sinned, I heard the Holy Spirit pounding my heart or speaking to my mind, but I refused Him. Then I would try my best to “get away” with things and inevitably something would get in my way. I usually had to push past whatever was blocking me from sinning. Then one day, God approached me again- after I had made an absolute mess of my life- and I yielded my heart to His will. He was so gracious that He forgave me for everything, told me how to clean up the messes I had made and still has allowed me to teach His word! God diligently guarded my path- He never left me! This is what Proverbs 2:8 (b) means.
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