Divine Guidance 1. 6
Back to Arthur Pink
As a general rule it is better for us to trouble our minds very little about "guidance"—that is God's work. Our business is to walk in obedience to Him day by day. As we do so, there is wrought within us a prudence which will preserve us from all serious mistakes. "I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts" (Psalm 119:100). The man who keeps God's precepts becomes endowed with a wisdom which far surpasses that possessed by the sages of antiquity, or the learning of philosophers. "Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness" (Psalm 112:4). The upright man may experience his days of darkness—but when the hour of emergency arrives—light shall be given him by God. Serve God with all your might today, and you may calmly and safely leave the future with Him. A duteous conformity to what is right—shall be followed by a luminous discernment of what would be wrong.
Seek earnestly to get the fear of God fixed in your heart so that you tremble at His Word (Isaiah 66:2) and are really afraid of displeasing Him. "Who is the person who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he should choose" (Psalm 25:12). "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding" (Job 28:28). "Then shall we know—if we follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3). The more we grow in grace—the fuller will be our knowledge of God's revealed will. The more we cultivate the practice of seeking to please God in all things, the more light shall we have for our path. "Blessed are the pure in heart—for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). If our motive is right—our vision will be clear.
"The integrity of the upright shall guide them—but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them" (Proverbs 11:3). The upright man will not willingly and knowingly go aside into crooked paths: the honest heart is not bewildered by domineering lusts nor blinded by corrupt motives: having a tender conscience he possesses keen spiritual discernment. But the crooked policy of the wicked involves them in increasing trouble and ends in their eternal ruin. "The righteousness of the perfect (sincere) shall direct his way—but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness" (Proverbs 11:5). An eye single to God's glory, delivers from those snares in which the ungodly are taken. "Evil men understand not judgment—but those who seek the Lord understand all things" (Proverbs 28:5). Unbridled passions and unmortified lusts becloud the understanding and pervert the judgment until men call good "evil"; and evil "good" (Isaiah 5:20); but he who seeks to be subject to the Lord shall be given discretion.
"The Lord shall direct your paths."
First, by His Word—not in some magical way so as to encourage laziness, nor like consulting a cookery-book full of recipes for all occasions—but by warning us of the by-ways of sin and folly and by making known the paths of righteousness and blessing.
Second, by His Spirit—giving us strength to obey the precepts of God, causing us to wait patiently on the Lord for directions, enabling us to apply the rules of Holy Writ to the varied duties of our lives, bringing to our remembrance a Word in due season.
Third, by His providences—causing friends to fail us so that we are delivered from leaning upon the arm of flesh, thwarting our carnal plans so that we are preserved from shipwreck, shutting doors which it would not be good for us to enter, and opening doors before us which none can shut.
Back to Arthur Pink