I want to start today by looking at Psalm 18:30-36:

30 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
31 For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip.

It is so easy to say that God’s ways are perfect, but really believing it is a whole new challenge. Most of the time we really don’t believe this is true. If I believe that God’s way is the perfect way, then I would not be so tempted to do things my own way. Verse 30 says that God is a shield to those who trust in Him. It is great comfort to read this, but in our challenges of everyday life it is hard to put this into practice. God has proven Himself so many times that the book of Hebrews calls these examples a cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. Even though we have so many examples to draw from, when we have troubles, we usually crumble out of fear. There are always two choices – God’s way and the easy way out. The worldly way always makes logical sense and takes zero faith, but God requires a step into the darkness depending on Him. We all have seen people who sacrificed honesty out of fear. A little lie or a little dishonesty is much easier than standing firm and refusing to budge from God’s word. It is easy to stand strong when everything is going well, but when trouble is closing in, it is to easy to do as Peter did in Matthew 14:

28 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." 29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

We do the same. We take our eyes off of Jesus and look at the waves and turmoil and then become weak. In the passage above, verses 32-36 talk about God giving the strength and enabling us to overcome. A good example that comes to mind is the story of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Both were kings of Israel. Israel was being attacked by their enemies and their foes were winning. This was after the reign of King David and King Solomon in whose days God made Israel great because they trusted in God. The Assyrians were the strongest nation in that region and Ahaz said, "Look at how the gods of Syria have helped them". He decided to follow the world’s gods and Israel was defeated down to one walled city. Ahaz died and Hezekiah reigned in Israel. The army returned and offered a reward for surrender or destruction if they didn’t surrender. The king of Assyria mocked God and warned that the God of Israel could not save the rest of the nation and made great boasts and threats against those who were foolish enough to trust in God. Hezekiah was afraid, but he used his fear to turn to God and humble himself before God. He did not crumble; rather he put his trust in God’s strength. God answered and said that because they prayed and put their trust in Him, He would fight the battle for Hezekiah.

Hezekiah only had to stand firm. An angel slew 180,000 out of 200,000 soldiers in their sleep. When the king woke and found a dead army, he fled back and was killed by his own relatives in the temple of his god. That is quite a contrast between Ahaz who trusted in what he could see and Hezekiah who trusted in God. Hezekiah was in a bad position knowing that if God didn’t do as promised, he would surely have be killed. But he believed in the word of God. He may have even drawn comfort from this same passage in Psalms.

The real battle is not one of strength or advantage. The real battle is one of trusting in God and shifting our focus to Him. One common pattern always develops in the Bible, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9. God will not protect you from trouble. In fact, I believe God will lead us through trouble. When I am too comfortable, I loose focus. When things are going perfect, I become self-sufficient. There is no need to cling to God. I found a copy of an old magazine that was published during World War 2. It was a secular magazine but it mentioned God dozens of times throughout its pages. During the gulf war with Iraq, I heard many leaders public asking for prayer and noting our dependency on God. In both cases, the majority of Americans were afraid and uncertain of what the future would hold. How quickly we forget when life gets back to the status quo. I believe that God leads us through trouble and carries us through pain. Pain is a part of life in a fallen world. Trouble is often a product of life in a fallen world, but I also believe that God will lead us to situations that require us to choose faith or abandonment.

The Bible tells us that the road to heaven is very narrow and hard to find. It is even harder to keep. There are no detours. We can detour but only at a greater cost of leaving God’s plan for our lives. The problem most of us face is that we are more willing to forfeit God’s abundant blessing than we are to struggle through a temporary trial. That is why Proverbs 14:4 says, "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox." In other words, we can choose the ways that doesn’t inconvenience us and keeps us from getting dirty and sweaty, but a life of ease is also a life of no gain. We often forfeit God’s increase by forfeiting God’s call walk the narrow path.

I love verses 35 and 36. "You have also given me the shield of Your salvation". How good it is to know that the promise of heaven is before us. To know that my soul is shielded has more comfort than any problem can take away. "Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great." I’ve said this before and I believe it is worth mentioning again. I am frequently whacked over the head with the statement, "Christians only need God because they need a crutch." That is true. Anyone who does not need a crutch should examine the direction of their life. Who needs a crutch when they are taking a wide path that gently goes downhill? When you follow God’s call, He calls you to climb uphill. It is a difficult climb against the grain. The climb is so difficult in fact that we can’t do it ourselves. We depend on exactly the way this passage states. I need God’s right hand to hold me up, or else I will surely fall. Yet God is gentle and in His gentleness He exalts those who give Him glory. God never carries us uphill. When we are weary, I believe "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul." (Psalm 23:2-3). Once restored, "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake." (Psalm 23:4). The path goes straight uphill and requires us to cling to Him. The mental image I have is when a climber takes the person below by the hand and they both pull and the lowest man climbs until they scale the rock. As I climb, "You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip." Psalm 18:36. So the next time someone says you just need a crutch, smile and say "Yes I do, the climb is steep." The climb may be steep, but God is taking the lead upward and there is no place I would rather be than in the presence of God. "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." – Psalm 16:11.

There is an easier path, but the ease of following it is the only reward. Matthew 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14"Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." It really boils down to what we value most. If someone values the self-sufficient lifestyle that is only possible on an easy path but has a reward of destruction, it is a wide target to hit. Most of the time a crutch is not needed on the declining path. I find the difficult path much more attractive because the reward at the end is life. Along the way I have my relationship with Jesus Christ to reward me as well.