God’s Leading and Guidance

God’s Leading and Guidance

“As for God, His way is perfect . . . .” 2 Sam. 22:31. Not a single sparrow falls to the ground unless He wills it. Even the hairs on your head are numbered. Matt. 10:29 and 30. “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 1 Cor. 10:13. All things are your servants. Ps. 119:91. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God. Rom. 8:28. “If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?” Amos 3:6. “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isa. 45:7. “Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?” Lam. 3:39. “A man’s steps are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way?” Prov. 20:24; 16:9; 19:21. “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” Jas. 4:13-15. “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings us up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up.” 1 Sam. 2:6-7. God is good; He has all power in heaven and on earth.

Faith in (not knowledge about) God’s perfectly good and omnipotent guidance of everything and everyone necessarily produces complete rest in me, and thus also perfect victory over sin. The person who walks in this rest of faith is blameless and invincible, even though he is not yet perfected. Therefore I want to recommend to all those who believe to ponder the above selection of scriptures. It will be rewarding!

Lay hold on eternal life to which you have been called! Lay hold of faith in these scriptures! It is a short and reliable way into rest in God—into rest in all of life’s changing situations, in all kinds of temptations, opposition, need, and calamities.

We enter into rest by faith. It is because of unbelief that one doesn’t lay hold of this indescribably blessed rest, this life of victory! See Hebrews 4. This rest necessarily excludes all sin. There is no opportunity or room for sin in this rest. Thanks and praise!!!

A naughty boy kills a sparrow with a slingshot, and the bird falls to the ground. One is tempted to be zealous against the sinner, which the Scriptures forbid. Wasn’t that a terrible incident with the innocent sparrow? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from our heavenly Father’s will. He is omnipotent and could have prevented it from happening if He had wanted to. God is good; His way is perfect, He does not sleep nor does He neglect anything; He is neither indifferent nor half-hearted; He does not despise small things. If it had been better for the sparrow to live, then the Father—in spite of all naughtiness—would have let it live. What happened was the very best thing! No one can wish for anything better!!! By this faith I reject temptation, and my heart remains in perfect rest so that my eye is pure. If I speak to the naughty boy it is not in order to avenge the sparrow, but to benefit the boy.

A man stands by a machine and has a finger torn off. He is tempted to murmur and complain against God: “Why should this happen?” God knows even the number of all the hairs on his head so that not one of them is torn out apart from His will. How much less is a finger torn off unless He wills it. All things are God’s servants. According to God’s command (servants always receive commands), the machine took the finger off. All things are for our best. Until now it was best to keep the finger, but after that it was best for his salvation to be without it. It was a calamity, but there is no calamity in a city unless the Lord has done it, and what He does is good and perfect. If it had been more perfect to keep it he would have kept it as truly as 2x2=4. Therefore his heart is at rest in God. He does not charge God with folly, neither in thought nor in word. Job 1:22.

You meet a bad and difficult person who deliberately misunderstands you, backbites you and lies, and comes with false accusations that are believed by your superior at work or by your landlord. As a result, you are let go; you are viewed as an outcast just because of this one person. Isn’t that mean? You are tempted to get angry, to use insulting words, to requite evil with evil, to be filled with hatred, etc. Not only that, you are also tempted to murmur against God: “Why should this happen?” Has God failed me; has He been unfaithful? On the contrary! “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” He who does not make a mistake has discerned my ability to bear these temptations as great as they are. He has shown me this confidence—precisely in the same manner as He showed confidence in Job. See Job 1:8 and 12. What an honor! What a hope! What blessedness! Jas. 1:12. “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” The Lord has done it—He who is good, whose way is perfect! He who weighs and measures everything, He saw that anything less would not be a fitting test for me. His only thought is to make me worthy to be crowned together with Christ Jesus on that Day. God be praised!

Thanks and praise for the purifying fire! The heart remains undisturbed in its deep rest!

Sirach says that sin is like a nail that sits like a wedge between the buyer and the seller. However there is no room for the sharp edge of a wedge to come between rest in God and everything that comes our way. Hallelujah!

“Let every man complain about his own sins.” You can justly accuse, hate, and judge yourself when you have gone too far, but murmuring and complaining about others is utter folly because God guides everything for my best. The others’ sin can only hinder me if God permits it, for it is precisely measured and controlled by Him. He does not permit it unless it is for my benefit. And we should not be dissatisfied with something that is for our benefit.

A man is supposed to go to a meeting in order to testify about God, and he has something really good on his heart so he really wants to get there. At a road junction he takes the wrong turn, ending up much later far in a totally different place, so that he cannot attend the meeting. He is tempted to let all kinds of restless thoughts into his heart. “Wasn’t that a shame?” And he had so much that was good on his heart! Well, perhaps that was so. Perhaps God was asleep in that critical moment, or He was awake but He was tired of all that striving with the children of men so that He did not intervene? Those are thoughts of a madman! The thoughtlessness of it! He who guides and leads the hearts of kings like water in a brook—didn’t He have sufficient power to guide this “moth” of a child of man on the desired path if He had wanted to? God willing, we shall do this or that. “A man’s steps are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way?” We understand only in part. He understands everything! The brother had something good on his heart; there shouldn’t be any doubt about that. Yet the Lord had something better in mind! Is that so mystical, so incomprehensible that there is a greater supply of wisdom in God than in the brother? If that is difficult to understand, then everything is difficult. The meeting turned out to be completely different, which God, for one good reason or another, thought was better, and the brother who did not make it to the meeting received a particularly good reminder of his lowliness that he would not have received otherwise. “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33. God’s ways are perfect. Now the perfect thing has happened!!! God led the brother’s way to a barren place where he, in perfect rest, could worship and praise God’s greatness as never before, and the same good God was among them at the meeting and was able to accomplish more without this dear brother’s presence at the meeting than if he had been there. It is no wonder, then, that the brother took the wrong road! The Lord be highly praised!!! He is the God of all things! And there is no one who is greater.

In this world, one person becomes poor and another becomes rich. Is that not unrighteous? No, it is the Lord who makes poor and who makes rich. The Lord is righteous and He does what is right—only man does not comprehend His work. Nevertheless, it can be understood to an ever increasingly deeper degree. God’s wisdom is revealed in the rest of faith. Therefore it is vital to enter into rest so we can become wise. With one person God gets rid of sin while he is poor, while he is more successful with another person when he is rich. He deals with every one in particular as it serves him for the very, very best. He is perfect! His name be highly praised!

It is a fact that the dearest marriage partners can, after a time, be tempted to sigh against each other, wondering if someone else would have been better. Yet it is God who has put them together—He whose way is perfect. On the outside chance that there could have been a more suitable person—someone who was more suited to contributing to our breaking down process according to the flesh—whether it was one side or the other side of the Atlantic Ocean—then the Omnipotent One would have given this spouse to us without difficulty, for all things are His servants. All things are ready in order to accomplish His will: ocean steamers, submarines, and airplanes; horses, automobiles, and railways; the postal service, telephones, and the telegraph; invitations as well as warnings; bad and good, truth and lies. God has all threads in His hand. Nothing goes wrong through His guidance. We can safely sing, “How great Thou art . . . .” The rest of faith is blessed; it is highly exalted! It tells me that I have received the best spouse on earth through God’s unsearchable wisdom and goodness. I couldn’t wish for anything better. Everyone has received the best spouse! Thus it is not difficult to love your spouse faithfully until the end, even if he/she exhibits ever so many shortcomings. God is wonderful! Indeed, His name is: Wonder.

Anger—what happens to anger? It rests in the bosom of fools. Eccl. 7:9-10. What is folly? It is folly to desire something different from what it is in this world—different than what serves us for our best. It is pure madness! Rest in God excludes all anger.