For a Busy Day'. 2
Back to J. R. Miller
Comfort they had never known before, breaks out as in strains of heavenly music from old familiar Bible texts which they had learned from childhood. Friends come and tell them precious things about the love and grace of God, and sing hymns of faith and hope, in their quiet chamber. The Spirit of God whispers in their ears, the things of Christ. After all this experience, the curtain is drawn and these children of God go out into the world to sing in the light—the songs they have learned in the darkness.
Life is full of these strange answers to our morning prayer, "Show me the way I should walk." Sometimes a sore disappointment comes, or a keen sorrow, or a misfortune, as we call it, seeing but the earthly side, and the beginning of the experience. Our plans are rudely set aside. Our hopes are laid in the dust. "Surely this is not the way!" we say. Yet why should we doubt that it is so—when we have asked our Father to cause us to know the way? Shall we not rather sweetly accept His guidance, believing that the path in which we are led—is the right one?
If Joseph had prayed this prayer the morning he left home to go on the errand to his brothers, he might have wondered on his way to Egypt, as a slave—if that were the right answer. But as the years went on, he learned that there had been no mistake that day. If he had escaped from his brothers or from the caravan, he would have only spoiled one of God's thoughts of love for him. So it is always, when we put our hand in God's and trust him. He may lead us through valleys of shadows—but beyond the gloom, we shall come to green pastures. It is safe, as we go out into the unopened day, to pray, "Show me the way I should walk."
3. To Be Kept from Evil
The third petition of this morning prayer is, "Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You." The day is full of dangers—dangers we cannot see, and from which we cannot protect ourselves. Disease lurks in the air we breathe, and hides in the water we drink, or in the food we eat. Along the street where we walk, on the railway over which we ride, there are perils. Any moment we may be stricken down! There may be enemies who are plotting against us, conspiring to do us harm.
There are certainly spiritual enemies, who are seeking to destroy us! The sunniest day is full of them. No African jungle is so full of savage and blood-thirsty wild beasts—as the common days in our lives are full of spiritual enemies and perils. These dangers are unseen—and hence cannot protect ourselves. "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy! He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour!" 1 Peter 5:8
What, then, can we do? As we go out in the morning we can offer this prayer, "Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You." We can thus put our frail, imperiled lives—into the hands of our almighty God.
"Cast your burden upon the Lord—and He shall sustain you." Psalm 55:22. We are not promised that our prayers shall take the perils and temptationsout of our day. It is not thus, that God usually helps. We are bidden to cast our burden upon the Lord—but we are not told that he will lift it away from us. The promise is that we shall be sustained and strengthened in bearing it.
We need the burden! It is God's gift to us, and has a blessing in it, which we cannot afford to miss. Prayer does not take our trials away—but it puts our life into the hands of God—so that in His keeping, we shall be kept from harm while we pass through our trials. It brings God's grace into our heart—to preserve us from falling into sin; and God's strength into our life—that we may be victorious over our enemies.
Not to pray as we go into the day's dangers and trials—is to meet them without the help of Christ, and surely to suffer hurt, and possibly to fall into sin.
A writer says, "A sorrow comes upon you. Omit prayer, and you fall out of God's testing—into the devil's temptation; you get angry, hard of heart, reckless. But meet the dreadful hour with prayer, cast your care on God, claim him as your Father, though he seems cruel—and the degrading, paralyzing, embittering effects of pain and sorrow pass away; a stream of sanctifying and softening thought pours into the soul, and that which might have wrought your fall—but works in you the peaceable fruits of righteousness."
There are some people who omit private prayer in the morning, praying only in the evening. But how can any one safely go out to meet the perils and evils of all kinds, which lie hidden in the sunshine of the fairest, quietest day—without having first committed the keeping of his life to God? A young girl recently told how that one morning, being late and hurried, she did not offer her usual prayer before leaving her room. After she had gone to her work, her little brother, who slept in the same room with his sister, came to his mother, evidently much distressed about something. He told her that Alice had not said her prayer that morning before she went to work, adding, "I'm afraid something will happen to her today." Then, after a moment's thoughtful pause, he said, " I'm going to say her prayer for her." And the little, loving intercessor fell on his knees beside his mother's chair—and made an earnest, tender prayer for the sister who had forgotten that morning to pray for herself. The child felt that there were dangers in the great world, amid which his sister would not be safe that day, unless the hand of prayer had drawn the divine shelter down about her.
If we understood what perils there are for us in any common day, if our eyes were opened that we might have a glimpse of the enemies that wait for us in cloud and sunshine—we would never dare to go forth from our door any morning—until we had asked God to keep us from harm and deliver us from evil.
4. To Be Taught to Do God's Will
The fourth petition of this morning prayer is, "Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God; may your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground." A little earlier the prayer was, "Show me the way I should walk." But knowing the way is not enough; we must also walk in it. Mary Lyon said she feared nothing so much, as that she should not know all her duty, and that she should not do it. When we ask God in the morning to show us the way—we must ask him also to teach us to go in the right path. "Teach me to do Your will . . . may your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground." A great many people know their duty—and do not do it. Perhaps none of us do all the duty we know. Indeed, none of us do all that we sincerely intend to do. At the best, our performance falls below our ideal.
While the spirit is willing—the flesh is weak, and therefore we blunder and come short in our holiest endeavors. Our clumsy hands mar the lovely ideals which our souls vision. It is not enough that we be taught what we ought to do; we need to add the prayer, "Teach me to do your will."
Our hearts are not inclined to do the things that are right. It is not easy to be godly. The tide sets ever against us. We need to be taught and trainedand led with strong hand—in the way of God's commandments. We do not go far in the path of holiness—until we find that we must be saved almost in spite of ourselves. Paul's experience in the seventh chapter of Romans, is soon discovered to be a very common one in earnest Christian living. "I do not understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do."
Yet we are not to despair of learning the lesson of true and holy living, because we find it hard, even impossible, to unhelped human nature. Nothing is impossible to the grace of God. If the gospel of love only caused us to know the way in which we should walk, we might despair, for alone we never could walk in this way, however well we might know it. But the gospel does more—it also teaches us how to walk, how to attain the beauty that seems so hard to attain.
The little child has feet—but it does not know how to use them. The time comes, when it must learn to walk. The mother begins to teach it. The lesson must be learned slowly. It is not enough to tell the child what it is expected to do, or to explain to it the way men and women walk, or to show it an example of good walking. The little feet lack both strength and skill for the exercise. The wise mother sets about teaching her child how to walk. She tries first to get it to take a single step, and then two steps, and patiently trains it until by and by the child can walk and run easily at will. So must we be taught to walk in God's ways. We have to learn in short, easy lessons, one step, and then another, and then another, until at length we can walk and not be weary, and run and not faint.
How is this prayer answered? In what way does God teach us how to do his will? First, he sets the lessons for us in the Scriptures. Our morning Bible reading gives us a copy, as when a scholar is given a clean white page with a beautifully written copy at the top of it. He is to try to write on the lines of the page like the copy. If he is only a beginner, his writing falls far short of the beautiful top line. But if he is diligent and faithful, the successive lines show evidence, at least, of striving to learn. Our Scripture text for the day is the copy set for us.
It is, for example, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Naturally we are selfish, and think only of ourselves. We are not disposed to give much thought to others. We are quite apt to pass by on the other side when we see one who is in some trouble or need. At least, we are not likely to stop to help our neighbors carry their loads. But as we go out in the morning with our bit of Bible lesson in mind and heart, intent on letting it into our life—we soon begin to find that we cannot give our undivided attention to ourselves. Our text stands by us like an angel mentor, sharply reminding us at almost every step that here and here and here—are overburdened ones whom we must try to help a little with their load.
One such new lesson set for us every morning will keep us ever learning how to live, how to do God's will. We cannot learn our lessons in any one day, for they are long; but if we are earnest and diligent, we shall always be at school and shall be continually advancing in our spiritual education. Then, while we apply ourselves to our lessons we have the help of the divine Spirit. When we strive to learn our lessons, doing our best to put upon the canvas of our life the beautiful things of God's thought and will, and when we grow weary—not of—but in, our effort—God will assist us.
In faith and love we may go forth, morning by morning, praying, "Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God."
5. LIFE FOR THE DAY
The fifth petition of this morning prayer is, "For Your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life!" We have no strength for the duties and conflicts of the day. Life is too hard for us. Its burdens are heavier than we can bear. Its duties are too serious for our unaided wisdom. Its sorrows would break our heart—if no divine help or comfort came. Our life is too scant in its own fountains; we must have God!
No one is ready to go forth into any common day—until he has received divine strength. And this is promised to everyone who will seek it. It comes in many ways. You are in sorrow, and, opening the Bible, you read words of comfort. As you read and believe, there comes into your soul a blessing of strength and peace, and you are strangely comforted. Or you are entering into a temptation. You have no strength of your own to meet it. Again there comes a word of Scripture with its promise of help, and with the word comes strength which nerves your heart, and you are more than conqueror through Christ.
6. DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE
The last petition of this wonderful morning prayer is, "In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble." We can never plan our life so as to misssorrow. Indeed, the ministry of pain is indispensable in human life. Gardeners, sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer blooming, deprive it for a season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one fading leaf after another, and seeming to go patiently down to death. But when every leaf is dropped and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is seen then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tenderer foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul."
Thus it is that sorrow itself works blessing and good in the believer, when he is truly in communion with Christ. Deliverance from the trouble is not always granted; ofttimes this would not be a kindness; it would be the taking away of a rich blessing. We are not delivered from it—but in it we are kept from all harm, and receive good instead.
Such is this old-time morning prayer for a busy or troubled week-day. It is as appropriate for us as it was for those who centuries ago breathed out its words and found their day made safe and bright by the protection, the grace, and the love of Christ.
"Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You. Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God; may your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground. For Your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life; in Your righteousness, bring me out of trouble." Psalm 143:8-11
Back to J. R. Miller