What are the ways of God? The ways in which God deals with us are His ways. His ways entail what He wants to do. The ways of God are the choices He makes concerning us. These are the ways of God. His ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9). He has His own ordinations, and there is no room for our choice. He deals with this person in this manner and with another person in that manner. His ways are what He deems best. The ways of God imply that God acts according to His desire and choice.
Many people balk at the fact that, without an unveiling of God to man, we cannot accept God’s ways. We must first have revelation before we can accept God’s ways. We ask, "Why did God love Jacob and not Esau?" We feel that God was not fair to Esau, and we even feel indignant about the way Esau was treated. We think that Esau was a very good man who was cheated out of everything. Jacob was the one who was bad. Yet God said, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:13). Yet still we reason about this. Those who reason in this way have not seen God. Those who have seen Him know that He is God. God can act according to His pleasure. He does what makes Him happy. He is God. No one can tell Him how He should act. He does not need counselors or advisors. He does not need an advisory board to tell Him how to do things. He does what He pleases. These are the ways of God.
The ways of God are His choices. The ways of God are what He wants to do. He wants to do things this way, and He wants to deal with us in that way. He wants to accomplish this matter but not something else. He wants us to encounter this circumstance but not that one. These are the ways of God.
As we have already pointed out, when a person receives a revelation concerning God and he sees that He is God and that man is man, he only can bow down and worship. But we must not stop there because this is too abstract. We must immediately say, "God, I worship You, and I worship Your ways. I do not just worship You, I also worship Your ways." Our heart must be brought by God to the point of bowing down before Him and saying, "I see that I should not only worship You, but also what You have and what pleases You. I should worship what You choose. I should worship what You have ordained for me. I should worship what You are pleased to bring upon me. I should worship You for the things You do not want me to pursue." Brothers and sisters, it is easy to worship God while we are gathered here in the meeting because there is no price to pay. But let me repeat that all true worship comes from knowing God and receiving a revelation of God. Thank God, I know Him; therefore, I fall before Him, saying, "Everything You have done is right. You are never wrong." This is the way to accept the ways of God.
We learn to walk step by step. If we want to learn to walk before God, we will have no future unless we can learn to worship the ways of God—not just to worship God. Our entire spiritual future hinges on our ability to worship the ways of God. Thus, all who know God must be brought to the point of saying, "I worship the ways of God. I worship the things that God has ordained for me. I worship the things God has done to me. I worship God for what He is pleased to do in me. I worship God for the things He strips from me."
Let us consider a few of the worshippers of God in the Old Testament to see how they worshipped God. We will see the ways of God from the examples of God’s worshippers in the Old Testament.
(Worshipping the Ways of God, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee)