How to Succeed in the Christian LifeTorrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Religion
How to Succeed in the Christian Life
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Christian life -- Congregational authors
(5) That you follow step by step as He guides. God may only show you a
step at a time. That is enough. All you need to know is the next step. It
is here that many make a mistake. They wish God to show them the whole
way before they take the first step. A university student once came to
me over the question of guidance. He said, “I cannot find out the will
of God. I have been praying but God does not show me His will.” This was
in the month of July. I said, “About what is it that you are seeking to
know the will of God?” “About what I should do next summer.” I said, “Do
you know what you ought to do to-morrow?” “Yes.” “Do you not know what
you ought to do next autumn?” “Yes, finish my course. But what I want to
know is what I ought to do when my university course is over.” He was
soon led to see that all he needed to know for the present was what God
had already shown him. That when he did that, God would show him the next
step. Do not worry about what you ought to do next week. Do what God
shows you you ought to do to-day. Next week will take care of itself.
Indeed, to-morrow will take care of itself. Obey the Spirit of God for
to-day. “Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be
anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof” (Matt. 6: 34, R. V.). It is enough to live a day at a time, if
we do our very best for that day.
God’s guidance is clear guidance, “God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all” (1 John 1: 5). Do not be anxious over obscure leadings. Do not
let your soul be ruffled by the thought, “Perhaps this obscure leading
is what God wants me to do.” Obscure leadings are not divine leadings.
God’s path is as clear as day. Satan’s path is full of obscurity and
uncertainty and anxiety and questioning. If there comes some leading
of which you are not quite sure whether it is the will of God or not,
simply go to your Heavenly Father and say, “Heavenly Father, I desire to
know Thy will. I will do Thy will if Thou wilt make it clear. But Thou
art light and in Thee is no darkness at all. If this is Thy will make it
clear as day and I will do it.” Then wait quietly upon God and do not act
until God makes it clear, but the moment it is made clear, act at once.
The whole secret of guidance is an absolutely surrendered will, a will
that is given up to God and ready to obey Him at any cost. Many of our
uncertainties about God’s guidance are simply because we are not really
willing to do what God is really guiding us to do. We are tempted to say,
“I cannot find out what God’s will is,” when the real trouble is we have
found out His will and it is something we do not wish to do and we are
trying to make ourselves think that God wants us to do something else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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