GOD'S WILL CONCERNING US
By J. E. Green
WHILE making a scrap-book, I came across the following excellent question and answer, in an old Witness, and I copy them for the Review:— How can we best discern the guiding hand of God, in answer to prayer, in personal, practical life? God speaks to us, generally, through His word, but what about the details of every-day business life? Shall I do this thing or that? go this way or that way, or engage in this or that occupation? The first point is to satisfy your mind thoroughly that God has promised to guide us in all matters. Because, when you are quite sure of that, you will be in a position to claim the fulfillment of the promise, and to believe that it is being fulfilled, even if you do not see such results as you desire. The true principles of action are very clearly laid down in the word of God, and His promise to guide us is conditional on our obedience. We can not expect to find in the Bible explicit directions in regard to all the questions that come up in every-day life, although by means of some expressions in the Bible, at times God does throw light upon difficult problems, in regard to the course of action to be pursued. But generally we must trust to the personal guidance of the Holy Spirit. If we constantly seek that guidance and believe in it while doing the very best we can, we have a right to expect that God will be as good as His word. Take the simplest example: By what streets shall I go to reach a certain place? It may appear to be a matter of indifference which route I take, one way seeming quite as good in every respect as the other. But it is not an indifferent matter at all. There is more temptation to be encountered on one street than on the other; on this street there is opportunity for helping some one; for acquiring knowledge, something to be seen which will be an inspiration for service, or something which may be a warning against evil— all to be missed by taking the other route. If I ignore the fact that even the smallest incidents in life are fraught with tremendous possibilities, and allow the whim of the moment to decide such questions as the above, then I shall not only lose the benefit of God's guidance in these matters, but shall also do my own soul great injury, by encouraging the thought that in some things I have no need of special help from God. This thought will inevitably weaken my consciousness of God's presence with me, and will thus weaken my hold on Him and my capacity for receiving guidance and help from Him. But if in all the little matters of every-day life, the apparently unimportant things, I humbly seek and confidently look for God's guidance, at the same time trying to work out the principles of the gospel in a consecrated life, then God will guide every step and every action; and day by day and year by year I will grow more able to discern His hand and voice, leading me on. But I must not suppose that if God guides me, I will thereby escape all disappointments and trials and losses. And I must not expect that under God's guidance I will never make mistakes, that is, what will look like mistakes. What I must believe is that the disappointment, the trial, the loss, even the apparently stupid blunder, was part of God's plan for my life, and that in and through all these things God is able to bless me, or others through me, more efficiently than He would have done without them. Surely this must be so, if God has promised to guide me, and if I take Him at His word, and fulfill His conditions. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,” says Isaiah. How can we be kept in perfect peace unless we can feel quite sure that God is in all the experiences of life, and is working out through each and every one of them His own purposes of love in us, and for us, and by us? God guides His faithful and trusting servants through their thoughts or through outward instrumentalities. Quite often God hedges up the way in which His servant wishes to go, and opens up another way—His way.