One of God’s Great Don’ts
One of God’s Great Don’ts
Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing. Psalm 37:8 (rv)
It is so easy, we think, to “rest in the Lord,” and to “wait patiently for Him,” until the nest is upset; until we live, as many are living to-day, in tumult and anguish—is it possible then? If this “Don’t” does not work then, it will not work at any time. Resting in the Lord does not depend upon external circumstances, but on the relationship of the life of God in me to God Himself. Fussing generally ends in sin. We imagine that a little anxiety and worry is an indication of how wise we really are; it may be an indication of how wicked we really are.
1. Don’t Calculate without God
Let not your heart be troubled. (John 14:1)
When you reckon things up, bring God in as the greatest factor in your calculation. How are we to have an untroubled heart? When we are well, we express the “well-ness”; but when things are not right, when circumstances are twisted upside down, can this command work then? This “don’t” of our Lord’s must work in days of perplexity as well as in days of peace.
God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting things which we have calculated on without Him. We get into places and circumstances He never chose, and suddenly they are shaken and we find we have been calculating on them without God; He has not entered in as a living factor. Have we learned the wonderfully practical lesson of not calculating without God? Have we got this “don’t” straight home? To take God into all our calculations is the one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying. According to the wisdom of this world, God seems to be haphazard. He is not calculable in His providence, He works in ways we cannot estimate. If we try to work things out in logical ways, we are apt to find that suddenly in the providence of God a great upheaval comes we had never calculated on. Be silent to the Lord††††. There are things about which we never speak to God, because we don’t need to (cf. Deuteronomy 3:26).
Fretfulness springs from a determination to get my own way. Our Lord never worried, nor was He ever anxious, because He was not “out” to realise His own ideas, He was “out” to realise God’s ideas. Have I learnt to calculate upon God as the greatest factor in my common-sense decisions? “There”— in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty—“shall no evil befall thee.” No plague can touch that dwellingplace, no matter what happens on the outside it remains perfectly secure.
2. Don’t Calculate with the Evil in View
Love . . . taketh not account of the evil. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5 rv)
Apart from God, we do reckon with evil, we reason from that standpoint. To take no account of the evil does not mean we are ignorant of its existence; it means we do not take it in as a calculable factor.
A man ought to be a quiet citadel of the Holy Ghost for prayer for all nations. The one who is suffering according to God’s will is the one who has “a heart at leisure from itself.” The discipline of our lives goes on in external ways, and if we are not suffering according to the will of God, we will take care to let everyone know it. People’s sympathy is awakened for us, and they say, “How distressing that person’s circumstances are.”
“Come unto Me,” says Jesus, “and I will give you rest.” Do Jesus Christ’s words apply to me? Does He really know my circumstances? Fretting is sinful if you are a child of God. Get back to God and tell Him with shame that you have been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, “Lord, I take Thee into my calculation as the biggest factor NOW!”
3. Don’t Calculate with To-Morrow in View
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. (Matthew 6:34)
When we take thought for the morrow, it becomes the dominating calculation of our life. Our Lord is not saying, “Take no anxious thought,” but, “Don’t make to-morrow the ruling factor in to-day’s work.” Most of us do. To-day is lived without the power God means us to have because taking thought for the morrow is the dominating calculation, not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not telling us to be careless, but to be carefully careless about everything saving one thing, seeking first the Kingdom† of God and His righteousness. Many of us have no time for God and His Kingdom, we are so busy seeking other things.