HOW TO KNOW WHERE GOD WANTS US.
“If I only knew, just where God wanted me to be, I shouldn’t have any of this perplexing doubt about what is my duty.” That is the way a young Christian stated his case to an older Christian, at an important crisis, when he was deciding as to his life course. “Haven’t you asked God’s guidance, step by step, in your planning with reference to the present and the future, at this crisis?” “Of course, I have. And I’m wishing God would make His will clear to me. But I’m so afraid that I’ve made some mistake in my decisions, or that I shall be misled.” “Have you, at any point, consciously refused to be guided by God’s apparent leading because your inclinations, or the seeming personal advantage of another course, tempted you away?” “No; I’m sure I’ve been willing to follow God’s lead, so far as I could know it. But I’m not sure that I’ve made no mistake in learning God’s will.” “Then, on that point, you have no right to doubt. God is pledged to give you guidance at such a time, and in just such an emergency, as this. It is as wrong to doubt God’s leading as it would be to doubt God Himself. You should rest absolutely on His decision as to your duty and as to your place and work. No promise of God is more positive or explicit than His promise to one like yourself at such a time as this. ‘If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God; who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ What could be clearer than that? Yet there is another word in connection with that promise that you have a duty to heed: ‘But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’” “Well, that is a new way of looking at it. Then you think I’ve no right to doubt as to my being led of God to my decision in this crisis?” “Of course you haven’t. Trust is an essential phase of duty-doing in all seeking guidance from God.” It was in this way that a young Christian was counseled by a more experienced Christian as to seeking the Lord’s guidance, and trusting the Lord for guidance, in choosing one’s way through life. The older Christian had been led in that way for more than a half-century, and his confidence in the correctness of this course had grown with his experience in all the passing years. That young Christian is now ready to rest on God’s promise for guidance, because it is God’s promise. This is how a young man can know what God wants him to know, where God wants him to be. There is no other safe way for him to depend on. No young man has a right to choose his own way in life. Every young man ought to have his way in life chosen for him. If a young man chooses his own way, he is likely to make a mistake,—it may be a fatal mistake. If a young man will trust God to choose his way for him, he need have no doubt as to his life course. God never makes a mistake. Which is the better course, to be led in the right way, or to go by one’s self in the wrong way? Do you want to know the right way in life for yourself? Do you want to know your safest course in life? Do you want to know the one way in life that can be taken by you without making a mistake? “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” That is a good thing for every young man to think about.—Sunday School Times.