Our Works in God's Hand
OUR WORKS IN GOD'S HAND.
Far higher is our privilege this day ; not merely permitted, but pressed upon us by royal commandment, 'Commit thy works unto Jehovah!'
Yet this is but the third strand of a golden cord which is strong enough (if yielded to) to draw us up out of all the miry clay of the 'pit of noise,' where the voices of fear and anxiety and distrust make such a weary din.
We are to commit the keeping of our souls to Him; then we shall be ready for the command to commit our way unto Him, and then our works.
'Then, having obeyed, we may exchange the less confident exPs. xl. 2, margin.
1 Pet. iv. 19.
Ps, xxxvii. § pression, 'Unto God would I commit my cause,' for the bright assurance, 'I Job v. 8.
2 Dims. leis. am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I Zave committed unto Him.'
Of course He is!
Not an angel, but Jehovah bids us this day commit our works to Him.
It is not approving the idea, nor thinking about it, nor even asking Him to take them, that is here commanded, but committing them: a definite act of soul, a real transaction with our Lord.
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
Suppose you have an interview with another worker, and, having had a distinct understanding as to what you wish him to undertake for you, you verbally and explicitly transfer to him the management and responsibility of some work.
You are not actually in sight of it, you have no tangible objects to hand over, you might do it in a dark room, but the transaction is real.
The burden of the work is no longer upon you, if only you have confidence in the Ps. lv. 22, one to whom you have committed it.
And if you have the further confidence that he is considerably more capable than yourself, and can do it all a great deal better, you are not only relieved but rejoiced.
Just such a definite transaction does our Lord bid us make with Him this morning.
Will you do it?
Will you not, before venturing away from your quiet early hour, 'commit thy works' to Him definitely, the special things you have to do to-day, and the unforeseen work which He may add in the course of it? x Pet. v. 7.
And then, leave it with Him!
You
OUR WORKS IN GOD'S HAND.
okt would not have the bad taste to keep on fidgeting about it to the friend who had kindly undertaken your work for you!
If we would only apply the commonest rules of human courtesy and confidence to our intercourse with our Divine Master!
Leave details and results all and altogether with Him.
You see, when you have committed it to Him, your 'works ave in the hand of God.'
Really in His hand! and where else would you wish them to be?
Would you like to have them back in your own?
Do you think His grasp Eccles. ix. x. is not firm enough, or the hollow of "His hand not large enough, to hold Tsa. xl. 12. your little bits of work quite securely?
Even if He tries your faith a little, and you seem to have laboured in vain and spent your strength for nought, cannot you trust your 'own Master' enough to add, ' Yet surely my judgment is with ib. xlix. 4. the Lord, and my work with my God'?
Especially as He says, 'Thou art my ib. xlix. 3. servant, in whom I will be glorified ;' by which 'ye 4now that your labour is 1 Cor. xv. 58. not in vain in the Lord,'
ROVAL COMMANDMENTS.
That for the past work.
For the present, 'I will direct their work in Esa. xi. 8. truth.'
And for all our future work, a singular shining in the eastern horizon :
'Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.' tb. Ixv. 22.
Oh to be nothing, nothing !
Only to lie at His fect, A broken and emptied vessel, For the Master's use made meet.
Emptied, that He may fill me, As forth to His service I go ; Broken, that so unhindered His life through me might flow.
Oh to be nothing, nothing!
Only as led by His hand ; A messenger at His gateway, Only waiting for His command.
Only an instrument ready His praises to sound at His will ; Willing, should He not require me, In silence to wait on Him still.
G. M. TayLoa,
SECRET OF FULFILLED DESIRE.
NINETEENTH
DAY.
—_ 0-——> The Secret of Fultiller Wesire, 'Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.'
Ps, xxxvii. 4.
NE often hears this promise quoted without its conditional precept ; but we have no right to put asunder anything that God has joined together.
Every heart has desires, but not even every Christian heart delights Prov. x. 24+ Matt. xix. 6, Mark x. 35. itself in the Lord.
'This is the reason of the great wail of unfulfilled desire— the very howl, one might say, which makes a howling wilderness of this fair world.
VAS. WA 3
Prov. xiii. £2.
It stands to reason; if our delight is absolutely and entirely in the Lord, Ps. Ixxili. 25. all our desires will be not only 'before ib. xxxvill. Q.
Him,' but the whole 'desire of our soul' will be concentrated upon Him, Isa. xxvi.8.9;3 2 Sam. xxi.
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
Ser eons ore SS radiating from that centre along the bright rays of His 'good and perfect and acceptable will."
Now, of course, His will must and will be carried out : for 'He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand.'
Rom, xii. 2.
Dan. iv. 35.
So, if we delight truly in the Lord, and thereby have our desires so harmonized with His will that they float out on the same great tidé of perfect music, there will be no damper upon their vibrations, but they will be fulfilled for us because His will is fulfilled.
Rom. x. 1; x1. 26, 27.
His will is not, as we are tempted practically to think, something quite separate and apart from Himself, so that we may think Him gracious, and yet think His will rather stern 3 Or so that we may love Him, and yet very much dislike His will.
His will is the very essence of Himself going forth in force; it is the primary difference between what we know of Jehovah and what the Hindoo imagines of Brahma, Eph. v. 17.
SECRET OF FULFILLED DESIRE.
We must not overlook the important word 'also.'
This points us to a preliminary condition:
'Trust in the Ps, xxxvii. 3, | Lord, and do good.'
Trust, evidenced by obedience, is the stepping-stone to delight in the Lord, and the only one.
Obedience is the result of trust, and the condition of delight.
Isa. xil. 2, 3.
Two great cases of this condition of delight are distinctly given us—one spiritual, the other practical.
1. 'If thou return to the Almighty, Job xxii. 23, 26.
. then thou shalt have thy delight in the Almighty.'
It is not said to saints, but to repentant sinners—not to the eldest son, but to the returning prodigal.
To me, the wanderer, it is offered.
'To me, the backslider, it is held out.
We can never say: 'The Lord does not mean such a one as I to delight in Him; that sort of thing Matt. ix. 11, r3.
Luke xv. 2, 32.
Isa. xliv. 22
Hos. xiv. 1. is only meant for those who have always been consistent Christians.'
If so, He would not have said, 'If thou return'
Without true returning, there cannot be delight in the Lord; but, conversely, if there is no delight, ought
Fob xv. 11.
ROVAL COMMANDMENTS.
ee Hag. i. 7. we not to 'consider our ways,' lest some 'returning' should be needed ? tsa. Lviii. 13, 2. 'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own | words:
Zhen shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.'
On our knees before Him let us examine ourselves as to every clause of this great condition.
Fine xxii. | Perhaps ere we shall find the joints in Micah vi.2, | the harness, the secret controversy Job xv. x1.
| which hinders the realization of delight in the Lord, and therefore of the annexed promise.
A word about the delight itself.
There is something so real, and natural, and childlike about it. Itis joy realized
—joy in flower, bright, growing, alive, beautiful.
It is the sparkle of the upspringing fountain in the clear sunlight.
This childlike delight is to be in the Lord Himself.
It is quite another thing to delight in what He does for us.
SECRET OF FULFILLED DESIRE.
The Israelites 'delighted themselves in Thy great goodness.
Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled.'
Not under the shadow of even a Godgiven gourd, but under His own shadow, may you sit down 'with great delight.'
Then all His fruits shall be sweet to your taste; you shall delight in His Neh. ix. 25, 26.
Jonah iv. 6.
Cant i: 3; Reon xluS. ib. xciv. 19. will, in His comforts, in His commandments, and in His people.
You shall desire 'what /7/zs soul desireth,' and 'He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' ib. Cxix. 47. ib. xvi. 3.
Job xxiii. 13
Ps. cxlv. 19
Oh, blessed life !—the heart at rest When all without tumultuous seems— That trusts a higher will, and deems That higher will, not mine, the best.
Oh, blessed life !—heart, mind, and soul, From self-born aims and wishes free, In all at one with Deity, | And loyal to the Lord's control.
W. T. MAtson,
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
eee eeree ee ee
TWENTIETH
DAY. ee Taking Gov at Mis Word.
'I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.'
Acts xxvii.
25.
HEN, of course, St. Paul could be calm, and bright, and confident, 'with a heart at leisure from itself? to cheer and counsel others.
Yet could any circumstances have been more depressing ? —a miserable and crowded ship, to which our most wretched steamer would be a palace, exceedingly tossed with tempest, not a ib. xxvii. 22. ib, xxvii. 37. ib. xxvii. 18. gleam of sun or star for many days, ib. xxvii. 20. all reckoning lost, driving wildly on to ib. xxvii. 27. certain shipwreck, and the graphic and suggestive touch of 'long abstinence.' ib. xxvii. ro. ib, xxvii. 2r.
Whatever this day may bring forth, there can be. nothing like this for us.
Yet even the lesser trials of our own Prov.xxvii.t.