Introduction
Introduction
The desire for instant advice is not new. Sorcerers, magicians, wise men, oracles, witch doctors, palmists, shamans, astrologers, and fortune-tellers of all kinds have always been in business. The continuing sale of books and magazines on “horoscopy” and astrology and the growth of professional counseling and guidance services (not to mention computer dating agencies) indicate that although more education for more people is available than ever before, the majority seem to feel no more confident than they have ever felt of their ability to make decisions by themselves. A man who is ready enough to call himself an agnostic or even an atheist may show an interest in the influence of the stars, in spiritism, or in flipping a coin—things that are really a dead giveaway of his awareness of sources of power, knowledge, or control that are outside himself.
For the Christian there is a single source. It is God who is in charge of things, from stars to coins (though many would be slow to say that God has anything to do with heads or tails). It is reasonable for a Christian to go to God for help. Peter, a man not noted for steadfast faith, cried out, “Lord, save me,” when he found himself sinking in the sea. And the Lord immediately stretched out a hand to help. It was an instant solution to the problem of the moment, which is exactly what we usually want.
This is a book about the guidance of God, but it is not six easy lessons on how to get it. It is a collection of observations from personal experience and from the Bible on why and how God does, in fact, guide his children.
Advice is a commodity we suddenly need and set out to get. We might spend a few dollars for a magazine, or a few dollars to have our tea leaves read, with the attitude, “Oh, well, it might work. What can I lose?” If we like what we hear, we can follow the advice. If not, we reject it. We might get the advice of friends without having to pay for it, and when we are in serious difficulty we may be willing to pay a great deal for professional advice. The higher the fee, the more concerned we will be to ascertain the qualifications of the source we are consulting. Is it trustworthy? But ours is still the choice—we can take it or leave it, according to our inclinations.
The Christian does not come to God for advice. He comes asking for God’s will and, in the truest sense, there is no option here. Once it is known, it must be done. “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
God’s fee may be a higher one than we are prepared to pay—it may cost everything. Anybody who honestly intends to follow will certainly be asked to deny himself. A wealthy young man once came to Jesus full of good intentions, but they were shortlived. He went away sorrowful because Jesus had asked him to sell everything he owned. That was too much.
To ask for the guidance of God is to make a choice, and this takes faith. It must be faith of a far higher kind than the breezy “If I like what I see I’ll take it.” It is the faith that has strength to wait for the rewards God holds, strength to believe they are worth waiting for, worth the price asked. Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust him. This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust him, he’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust him. Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses.”
Nothing I have to say here is new. It is a well-worn path that thousands have traveled; but I have written down in very simple terms what I have seen on the way, hoping that one more witness will be an encouragement to some who even in the 1990s believe there is a God who can lighten our darkness.