God's Workmanship /
FOURTEEN God's Workmanship Foundation Text— For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. —Eph 2:10
To be "God's workmanship" means that God is our Maker, and that he will make us into the thing that will please him, if we do not take ourselves out of his forming hands.
Know that the Lord is God. / It is he who made us, and we are his; / we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
—Ps 100:3 (Ps 119:73; 139:14-16) It takes us a great while to learn that God is really our
Maker, and not we ourselves; and a large part of the perplexities of our spiritual experience arise from this ignorance. We are continually taking ourselves out of the hands of our Divine Maker by our efforts to make, or remake, or unmake ourselves. The Potter desires to fashion us into a beautiful vessel for his honor, but we will not hold still and let him work. We interfere with his processes, either by resisting him, or by trying to help him, and so the vessel is "marred in his hands."
So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in 177,
178 / The Open Secret his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Then the word of the Lord came to me; "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.—Jer 18:3-6 If we realize that we are God's workmanship and not our own, we will lie still in his hands, and will abandon ourselves to his working without a care.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. / We are the clay, you are the potter; / we are all the work of your hand.—Is 64:8
God's workmanship, where he has his own way unhindered, must be like himself, perfect. And therefore he can command us in our weakness to be perfect because he is our Maker, and he knows that his purpose is to make us perfect. We are to be made into something that will be to his glory.
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, / and all his ways are just. / A faithful God who does no wrong, / upright and just is he.
—Dt 32:4
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
—Mt 5:48 (Is 43:21; 1 Pr 2:9) The glory ofa man is shown forth in his work, and the glory of God must shine forth in the "works of his hands." A good workman cannot produce poor workmanship. Therefore, if we will only abandon ourselves to God's working, he will without fail prepare good works for us to do.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ...in order that we, who
God's Workmanship / 179 were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.—Eph 1:3-6, 12 This was his purpose in our creation at first, for we were to be made in his "own image."
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.—Gn 1:26-27
Of course this did not mean a likeness of person or body, but a likeness of character and nature; that is, we are "to be perfect as he is perfect," i.e., in the same sort of perfection, not as to degree of course, but as to quality. We cannot see God to know what we are to be like; but we see him incarnated in Christ, whois declared to be the "express image" of God; and thus we can look upon and consider the image to which we are to be conformed.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.—Rom 8:29
Since Christ was the "express image" of God, and we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, we can see how the Divine purpose in our creation is to be brought about.
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken offyour old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.—Col 3:9-10
To be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. —Eph 4:23-24 To make us then in his "own image," is therefore the object of God's workmanship, and nothing short of this will
180 / The Open Secret accomplish his divine purpose in our creation.
We can never understand a complicated machine until we know what was the purpose of the maker in regard to it. How did he mean it to work; what was it intended to accomplish; how has he arranged for it to run? When we walk through an exhibition of machinery we ask continually, as we stop to look at one machine after another, "What is this for?" "What is that for?" We are sure, when we see a machine, that the maker intended it to accomplish some special end; and we cannot imagine any man being so stupid as to make a machine that is not meant to accomplish anything.
Our Divine Maker therefore has made us for something.
And it is essential for us to find out what this is before we can expect to accomplish it. What then are we made to be, and what are we to do?
Everyone who is called by my name, / whom I created for my glory, / whom I formed and made.—Is 43:7
We are made then to bring glory to our Maker by perfectly fulfilling his purposes in our creation.
A machine that fails to fulfill the purposes of its maker, does not bring honor, but dishonor, upon him. And we who fail in fulfilling the purposes of our Creator, are bringing dishonor upon him. What then is this purpose?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings / and crowned him with glory and honor. / You made him ruler over the works of your hands; / you put everything under his feet.
—Ps 8:5-6 He has made us rulers. We are to be kings. We are to sit on the throne with Christ, and reign with him over the things of time and sense. We are to conquer the world, instead of being conquered by it. We are to know what it is to be made "always to triumph" through Christ. If we fail in this victory; if, instead of having dominion over sin, sin has "dominion" over us, ifthe world and the things of it master us and bring us into bondage
God's Workmanship / 181 we are not fulfilling the purposes of our Creator, and are therefore bringing disgrace upon his name.
And to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ
Jesus our Lord.—Eph 3:9-11 RSV If the "manifold wisdom of God" is to be shown forth in us and by us to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, we must try to discover how it can be accomplished. We ask of a complicated machine, how does it operate? And we mean, how do its different parts move in reference to one another, and what is the power that keeps them in motion. Ifa machine operates the way its maker meant it to, it will move easily and without friction. And we can only have easy and frictionless lives, if our inward machinery moves according to the divine plan. My hand was made to shut inward on my palm, and it shuts that way easily and without friction. But if I try to shut it outward over on its back, I cannot do it without breaking something. My heart was made to love and serve its Creator, and when I do this, all my inward machinery moves without friction or jar. But if I love and serve the creature more than the Creator, all goes wrong, and something is sure to break.
A great deal of the friction and failure in our spiritual lives arise from this fact, that we do not operate as God meant us to.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.—Phil 2:12-13 Paul does not say work for your salvation, but work out the salvation which God is working in you. We try to work things according to our own wills, not according to his will, and the result is as if an ignorant man should undertake to work a
182 / The Open Secret complicated machine after his own notions, instead of following the directions of its maker.
To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.—Col 1:29
Our "struggling" must be "with all his energy" or it will amount to nothing.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.—Eph 1:18-19 (Col 1:10-11)
Every machine of man's making is intended to operate by some definite sort of power, by manpower, by water power, or by some other method. In every case the machine is made for its own power, and will not operate for any other.
We are made to go by Holy Spirit power, and we cannot go right without it.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.—Acts 1:8
If we try to work ourselves by our own power we shall utterly fail, for we have no natural powers that can control spiritual forces. Only the powers that belong to the spiritual nature can have dominion over these.
Unless the Lord builds the house, / its builders labor in vain. / Unless the Lord watches over the city, / the watchmen stand guard in vain. / In vain you rise early / and stay up late, / toiling for food to eat— / for he grants sleep to those he loves.
—Ps 127:1-2 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Iam the vine; you are the branches. Ifa man remains in me and I
God's Workmanship / 183 in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.—Jn 15:4-6 In order then to be what we were intended by our Maker to be, and to work as we were intended by him to work, we must recognize the fact that we are his workmanship, and must abandon ourselves to his working.
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
—Heb 13:20-21 (Acts 17:24-26; 2 Cor 5:5; Acts 19:11) There is nothing more plainly told us in the Bible than just this fact, that we are God's workmanship, and that whatever true or acceptable work we do must be by his "working in us what is pleasing to him." And yet plainly as this is taught, there is scarcely anything we practically believe less.
We use the words, "The Lord my Maker," over and over, but they convey no clear idea to our minds; and we go on trying to make ourselves, working at our own interior life, and exhausting ourselves in efforts to transform our characters into a likeness to Christ. We try to "create" ourselves to good works, and are in despair at our continual failures.
For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?,—Rom 7:22-24 When however we recognize the fact that God is really our
Maker, not only in the outward creation but in the inward as well; and further when we see that he is also our re-Creator in
184 / The Open Secret redemption, we shall be forced to realize that he is therefore the only one who can understand how to work us, and who can remake us when we mar his work. If our watches are out of order, we do not meddle with them ourselves, but we take them to a man who makes watches, and who therefore knows how to remake them. And similarly must we do in our own case. If we are out of order we must take ourselves to the One who made us, and leave ourselves in his hands to be remade according to his divine plan.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will—Rom 12:1-2
What we need is to be "transformed," and none but the Lord can do this. Our only hope therefore is in letting him have his own way with us, by abandoning ourselves utterly to him to be put in order, as a watch is abandoned to the watchmaker. We do not understand the watchmaker's processes with our watches, and it may well be that we shall not understand the Lord's processes with ourselves.
As you do not know the path of the wind, / or how the body is formed ina mother's womb, / so you cannot understand the work of God, / the Maker of all things. —Eccl 11:5
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, / to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. / Does the clay say to the potter, / "What are you making?" / Does your work say, /
"He has no hands?" / Woe to him who says to his father, / "What have you begotten?" / or to his mother, / "What have you brought to birth?"—Is 45:9-10 (Is 45:11-12; Rom 11:33-34, 36)
Since we will all acknowledge that his ways are truly beyond understanding we must be content to leave the management of
Goa's Workmanship / 185 ourselves in his hands, and must believe that his dealings with us are the very best that could be, even though they may seem to us very mysterious or painful.
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, / and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, / because the Lord disciplines those he loves, / and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?—Heb 12:5-7 (Heb 12:8-11) The trial which is so hard to bear is one of God's blessed disciplinary actions, without which your soul would never have known its fullest glory.
But thou art making me; I thank thee, Sire.
What thou hast done and doest, thou knowest well; And I will help thee: gently in thy fire
I will lie burning; on thy potter's wheel I will whirl patient, though my brain should reel;
Thy grace shall be enough my grief to quell, And growing beauty shine through suffering dire.
Too eager I must not be to understand.
How should the work the Master goes about Fit the vague sketch my compasses have planned?
I am his house, for him to go in and out; He builds me now, and if I cannot see At any time what he is doing with me 'Tis that he makes the house for me too grand.
The wondrous end of God's making is, that we are to bear his own image, and who can marvel ifthe process by which this is to be accomplished may be sometimes hard and painful.
186 / The Open Secret Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.—2 Cor 4:16-17
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.—2 Cor 3:18
We have only to watch the making processes which all beautiful works of art require to bring them to perfection, in order to comprehend the reason of our trials.
'Tis that I am not good, that is enough, I pry no farther; that is not the way.
Here, oh my Potter, is thy making stuff!
Set thy wheel going; let it whirl and play.
The chips in me, the stones, the straw, the sand, Cast them out with fine separating hand,
And make a vessel of thy yielding clay.
There is infinite comfort and rest of soul in the fact that we are God's workmanship and not our own; for it gives us an unanswerable claim upon him.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; / your love, O Lord, endures forever— / do not abandon the works of your hands.
—Ps 138:8 (Job 10:8-12) The responsibility of creatorship is absolute. It is recognized all the world over in the responsibilities of parents for their children whom they have brought into existence. He who brings a being into existence is bound, we instinctively feel, to care for that being in the very best way possible.
"Why then did you bring me out of the womb? / I wish I had died before any eye saw me. / If only I had never come into being, / or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!"
—Job 10:18-19
God's Workmanship / 187 Our God himself recognizes this responsibility of creatorship.
Remember these things, O Jacob, / for you are my servant, O Israel. / I have made you, you are my servant; / O Israel, I will not forget you.—Is 44:21
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
—1 Pt 4:19 (Is 44:2-3) He is called our "faithful Creator" and because he is faithful we are urged to commit the keeping of our souls to him, for he himself has declared "I have made you and I will bear you; I will sustain you and I will receive you. (Is 46:4)
We used to be frightened sometimes at the words "Remember your Creator," as though they were the demand of something awful and alarming. But now we see that we could not "remember" a more blessed, or lovely, or restful fact. For our Creator is also our Saviour.
"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, / "and my servant whom I have chosen, / so that you may know and believe me / and understand that I am he. / Before me no god was formed, / nor will there be one after me. / I, even I, am the Lord, / and apart from me there is no savior. / I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— / I, and not some foreign god among you. / You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "that Iam God. / Yes, and from ancient days I am he. / No one can deliver out of my hand. /
When I act, who can reverse it?"—Is 43:10-13 (Is 45:17-22) God made, and he will remake. We were his workmanship in creation, and we are his workmanship in redemption. And he takes pleasure in his own work.
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; / he adorns the humble with victory.—Ps 149:4 RSV (Ps 147:11; Rv 4:11)
It is a universal instinct to take pleasure in anything we create. How we look at it, and turn it round to view it on every
188 / The Open Secret side, and walk off to see it at a distance, and delight to show it to those who will appreciate it and share our pleasure.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.—Gn 1:31
When we look on man as he is now, and when we hear the groans and cries of creation, we wonder that God could call his work "very good." But in redemption we behold the consummation of this work which in creation was only begun, and see
God's ultimate purpose for man carried out, and the excellence of his work manifested.
To illustrate, we have the declaration that man is "made a ruler," but in Hebrews we are told that this is not yet seen: "Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see
Jesus."
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
—Heb 2:8-11 Jesus therefore is the Head of the new redeemed spiritual race who are to fulfill God's purposes in creation, just as Adam was the head of the present imperfect earthly race. And as we have borne the image of the one, so are we to bear finally the image of the other.
So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from
God's Workmanship / 189 heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.—1 Cor 15:45-49 This, then, as we have seen, is the ultimate purpose of God's workmanship, to conform us to the image of his Son, "created in Christ Jesus to do good works." And he alone is able to accomplish such a mighty transformation. Let us then take our own hands off of ourselves, and put ourselves unreservedly into the hands of the Lord, believing that, although we are not able, he is able: and that nothing is too hard for his almighty power.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.—2 Cor 9:8 (Eph 3:20-21)
Nothing can give more utter rest of soul than this. If we are "God's workmanship," and if he is making us, we cannot find any room for fear or anxiety. No matter how bad we may feel ourselves to be, no matter how grievously out of order our inward machinery may seem, if God has us in his workshop and if he is at work on us, how can we have a care as to the result?
Moreover if we are God's workmanship we may be very sure of his abiding presence with us; for a man who is making anything must necessarily be close to it all the time he is at work on it. "What can there be so close as making and made?"
Therefore, while God's blessed processes are going on, we cannot have a doubt ora question about his continual presence with us.
God's part then is to work, and our part is to abandon ourselves utterly to his working, and to see to it that we do not hinder him by disobedience or doubt. He has undertaken to "create us in Christ Jesus to do good works," and we must yield ourselves up submissively to his blessed making processes, and must be content with the way of his working. We
190 / The Open Secret must yield, and trust, and obey without wavering, come what may; and we must never be discouraged because we do not see ourselves perfect all at once. "The Maker hath not done" yet, but he will assuredly perfect that which concerns us at last.
'Tis, shall thy will be done for me? or mine, And I be made a thing not after thine, My own, and full of paltriest pretense?
Shall I be born of God, or of mere man?
Be made like Christ, or on some other plan?
What though thy work in me transcends my sense, Too fine, too high, for me to understand,
I trust entirely. On, Lord, with thy labor grand!
I have not knowledge, wisdom, insight, thought, Nor understanding, fit to justify Thee in thy work, O Perfect. Thou hast brought me up to this; and lo! what thou hast wrought
I cannot call it good. But I can cry "O enemy, the Maker hath not done; One day thou shalt behold, and from the sight will run"
FIFTEEN The Presence of God "Thus doth thy hospitable greatness lie Outside us like a boundless sea; We cannot lose ourselves where all is home,
Nor drift away from thee."
Foundation Text— Where can I go from your Spirit? / Where can I flee from your presence / If Igo up to the heavens, you are there; /if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. /
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, / if I settle on the far side of the sea, / even there your hand will guide me, / your right hana will hold me fast. —Ps 139:7-10 The all-pervading presence of God with us is the one absolutely certain and unchangeable thing amid all that is so doubtful and changeable in this world of ours. And yet very few people realize this. Even Christians will cry out for the Lord to "come" to them, as though he had gone off on a journey or were in the remote realms of space. "How can I get into his presence?" they ask with eager longing; when all the while they are already in his presence, and cannot by any possibility get out of it, not even if they "make their bed in hell," or if they live in the furthest part of the earth. "Even there," wherever it may be, shall his hand hold and lead them.
192 / The Open Secret Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.—Gn 3:8
At this early period of human history we find that the Lord was present with the man and woman whom he had made. And from this time onward all through the ages, he is seen to be in continual daily and familiar intercourse with his people.
In Exodus he commanded them to make a sanctuary.
Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them—Ex 25:8 (Ex 29:45-46) We are told that he walked with them in the wilderness.
Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, that he may not see anything indecent among you, and turn away from you.—Dt 23:14 RSV (2 Sm 7:4-6)
When they took up their abode in the promised land, he commanded them to build a house for his name.
My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father David, "Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name... ."
But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
—2 Chr 6:7-9, 18 When this house was finished, he took up his abode in it, that he might dwell in the midst of his people continually, as their ever-present neighbor and friend.
When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
The Presence of God / 193 Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he would dwell ina dark cloud; I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.—1 Kgs 8:10-13
I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
—2 Chr 7:16
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.
—2 Chr 7:1-2 (2 Chr 7:12-15) Through all the back-sliding of the children of Israel, and through all their rebellions, he remained with them, and never ceased urging them to trust fully in him, and to abandon the whole management of their lives to his care.
In all their distress he too was distressed, / and the angel of his presence saved them. / In his love and mercy he redeemed them; / he lifted them up and carried them / all the days of old.
—Is 63:9 (1 Chr 17:8) And finally, in Christ, God came down in bodily form, and walked and lived among us, a man like us, taking upon himself our nature and sharing our common lot. His very name, "God with us," tells us the whole wonderful story, that God, our
Creator is not a distant God dwelling in unapproachable mystery, but is near at hand to every one of us, closer to us even than we are to ourselves, for "in him we live and move and have our being."
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
"For in him we live and move and have our being." As some of your own poets have said, "We are his offspring." —Acts 17:27-28
In Christ, God linked himself to humanity openly and forever, and thus revealed to us the fact of his abiding presence with humanity always and everywhere; so that we must never think of a single human being as apart from him.
194 / The Open Secret The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.—Jn 1:14
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.—Heb 2:14-17 (Phil 2:5-8; 1 Tm 3:16)
This then is a settled fact that cannot be questioned, that God is with us always, nearer to us than we are to ourselves, no matter whether we are conscious of his presence or not.
Speak to him, thou, for he hears, and spirit with spirit may meet; Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
For you created my inmost being; / you knit me together in my mother's womb.—Ps 139:13
Human language could not express a greater nearness than this; and to doubt it, is to doubt the whole revelation of the Bible.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place / throughout all generations.—Ps 90:1
Since God has been our dwelling place throughout all generations, we surely must not begin to question or doubt it now. We will therefore consider next what this fact is to mean practically in our daily lives.
It means I am sure far more of inward rest and peace than most people believe to be possible in this world of care and trouble.
The Presence of God / 195 We all know the rest that comes, even in the midst of trouble, from the presence of a tried and trusted friend. We sometimes say of such a friend, "She is a tower of strength to me"; and we express in these words the same thought humanly applied, which contains a divine application when we say of the Lord that he is our "strong tower" to whom we may continually resort.
I love you, O Lord my strength. / The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; / my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. / He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.—Ps 18:1-2 From the ends of the earth I call to you, / I call as my heart grows faint; / lead me to the rock that is higher than I. / For you have been my refuge, / a strong tower against the foe. / I long to dwell in your tent forever / and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.—Ps 61:2-4 God's abiding presence with us means the solution of every difficulty of our lives. The mother's presence with the child solves all the child's difficulties; just her simple presence, without need of any special promises or assurances. "Oh, there is my mother!" the little troubled child will exclaim, and at the sight of her coming, all the childish burdens will drop off and vanish.
The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." —Ex 33:14
How often in our childhood, when we have been afraid to go somewhere or to do something, have our mothers comforted us, saying, "I will be with you," and how often has God stilled all the fears of his people by the same simple announcement, "Certainly, I will be with you."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should goto Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to
196 / The Open Secret you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
—Ex 3:11-12 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.' —Mt 28:18-20 (Jos 1:5, 9)
We cannot doubt that all these reiterated assurances of his presence with his people, under all their varying circumstances and conditions, must be meant to assure us, that, because he is thus with us, we may be also sure that all he has of wisdom or of power are at our disposal, and are engaged on our behalf. No good mother could be present with her child, and fail to use all her resources in that child's behalf; her mother-heart would make it impossible. And the heart of God towards us makes it far more impossible for him to be present with us and fail to help us in every need.
"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.—Jer 1:6-8 "Tam with you and will rescue you; this is the express object of my being with you, this is just what I am for; therefore be not afraid." Two little girls were once talking together when one began to tell the other of her fright in the dark. "Oh," replied the other eagerly, "I do not see how you can be afraid when God is always taking care of us." "But," said the first, "I don't believe God does take care of such little girls as us."
"Why, Mollie," exclaimed her little friend in surprise, "don't you know that that is just what God is for!"
The Presence of God / 197 But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.—Jer 39:17-18 It is a sad fact that in spite of these reiterated assertions of our Lord's, only a few of his people really believe in his abiding presence. They will all perhaps say they do, but when it comes down to their real belief, behind their words, it is manifest that it is nothing more than a pious sentiment, and has no practical reality whatever to their souls. Else, why the fear and trouble of heart that render so many Christian lives miserable? To the soul that believes in his presence as a /iteral fact, there can never be anything but joyous triumph or peaceful calm. That soul has
God, and it knows that God is sufficient. His simple presence is a certain assurance of all possible care and help.
"Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For Iam coming, and I will live among you," declares the Lord.—Zc 2:10
His presence is enough for our joy, let what else come or go.
We have all of us known loved ones in our lives, whose mere presence brought with it always utter content. A prison would have been a palace with that one's presence in it; and without that one, nothing had any joy.
Though the fig tree does not bud / and there are no grapes on the vines, / though the olive crop fails / and the fields produce no food, / though there are no sheep in the pen / and no cattle in the stalls, / Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, / I will be joyful in God my
Savior. / The Sovereign Lord is my strength; / he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, / he enables me to go on the Poe iea i —Hb 3:17Madame Guyon expresses it as follows,
All scenes alike engaging prove To souls impressed with sacred love;
198 / The Open Secret Where'er they dwell, they dwell in thee, In Heaven, in earth, or on the sea.
To me remains nor place, nor time, My country is in every clime; I can be calm and free from care, On any shore, since God is there.
While place we seek or place we shun The soul finds happiness in none; But with my God to guide the way 'Tis equal joy to go or stay.
Could I be cast where thou wert not, That were indeed a dreadful lot; But regions none remote I call, Secure of finding God in all.
"Can anyone hide in secret places / so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord. / "Do not] fill heaven and earth?" declares the Lord.—Jer 23:24
He who "fills heaven and earth" must surely be in the places he fills; even though we may not see him or feel him there.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me / and the light become night around me," / even the darkness will not be dark to you; / the night will shine like the day, / for darkness is as light to you.—Ps 139:11-12 "Even the darkness will not be dark to you." We all know this must be a fact, in the very nature of things; and yet when the soul finds itselfin spiritual darkness, it seems impossible to believe that it can be true. The fever of delirium may hide the mother from the child, and her heart may be wrung by its piteous cries for her coming, but the child's blindness does not drive away the mother nor make her ears deaf to its cries. And just so the delirium of our doubts or despair, or even of our sins, while it hides him from us, so that we call out in anguish for his presence, can never hide us from him, for the "darkness is as light" to him.
The Presence of God / 199 If our faith will but grasp this fact as a reality, our "seasons of darkness" will not trouble us, for we shall be sure all the while, although we cannot see him nor feel him, that he is still there close at hand for our need, an "ever present" help in all our trouble.
God is our refuge and strength, / an ever present help in trouble.
/ Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way / and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, / though its waters roar and foam / and the mountains quake with their surging.
—Ps 46:1-3 Yet I am always with you; / you hold me by my right hand. / You guide me with your counsel, / and afterward you will take me into glory. / Whom have I in heaven but you? / And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. / My flesh and my heart may fail, / but God is the strength of my heart / and my portion forever.
—Ps 73:23-26 "Flesh and heart may fail," but the ever-present God still holds us by our right hand, even though we may not realize it, and is our all sufficient portion for ever.
Thou hast ascended on high, / thou hast led captivity captive: / thou hast received gifts for men; / yea, for the rebellious also, / that the Lord God might dwell among them. / Blessed be the Lord, / who daily loadeth us with benefits, / even the God of our salvation.—Ps 68:18-19 KJV (Ps 61:2-4) Neither can any backsliding take us out of his presence. No matter how far away our souls may seem to wander, though it should be to the "far side of the sea," yet "even there" we shall always find him with us, prepared to "Load us with benefits" the moment we are ready to receive them.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; / his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say this— / those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, / those he gathered from the lands, / from east and west, from north and south. / Some wandered in desert wastelands, / finding no way to a city where they could settle. / The were hungry and thirsty, / and their lives ebbed away.
200 / The Open Secret Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, / and he delivered them from their distress. / He led them by a straight way/ to a city where they could settle. / Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love / and his wonderful deeds for men.—Ps 107:1-8 I am sure we all would praise him instinctively and without effort for his wonderful works, if we would only believe in their reality. And I want us therefore to see him as this everpresent God, always close at hand to hear and to help, let us have wandered where we may.
But some may ask whether there is not such a thing as "coming into" his presence and "leaving" it, being nearer or further off from him. To this I answer that these are only figures of speech which express spiritual states on our part, and not any divine facts on his part. I may be seated close to a person and yet be in spirit separated from that person thousands of miles. And when we speak of nearness or distance as regards God, it is only according to our spirits, not according to the facts. He is always near us, but we are not always near him. In fact he is never far enough off even to be spoken of as near. He "created us in our inmost being," and if we only knew the facts of the case, it would be as impossible for us to think of ourselves apart from him, as to think of ourselves apart from ourselves.
I feel sure our modes of speech in regard to this subject have led us into great darkness. We pray, "O Lord, come to us"
When we ought to pray, "O Lord, make us come!" The "coming" is altogether in our spirits, not in his presence.
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, / so the Lord is round about his people, / from this time forth and for evermore.
—Ps 125:2
How are the mountains round about Jerusalem? Are they there today, and gone to-morrow? Are they there in sunshine, but do they forsake Jerusalem when it storms? Are they there
The Presence of God / 201 when all eyes see them, but gone when night makes them invisible?
You exclaim, "What foolish questions!" But if the "as" and "so" in this verse are true, and ifthe Lord really is round about his people as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, the things many Christians think and say are far more foolish. Did none of you ever think in time of trouble and darkness that the Lord had forsaken you?
Suppose the dwellers in Jerusalem had acted toward their mountains as some of you act toward your God, what would you have thought of them? Suppose they had said on sunshiny days, "Now we believe the mountains surround us, because we can see them." And then on stormy days had said, "Alas! there are nO mountains around us, for we cannot see them any longer!
It is an unchangeable fact that the mountains are round about Jerusalem, whether any one sees them or not; and it is equally an unchangeable fact that God zs always round about us "from this time forth and for evermore," whether we see and feel him or not.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, / and he delivers them.—Ps 34:7
God is within her, she will not fall; 7 God will help her at break of day.—Ps 46:5
Since, therefore, God encamps round about us, and is in our midst, since in short, he is our continual environment, we must not allow ourselves to be moved, for it would bring dishonor on his power or willingness to save. Nothing can harm the child in the mother's presence, unless the mother is first disabled. And since our God cannot be disabled, nothing can hurt or destroy us in his presence. In fact nothing can withstand the mighty, all-conquering power of his presence.
Mountains and oceans and rocks and deserts in the spiritual realms of life melt and vanish when he appears.
202 / The Open Secret The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, / before the Lord of all the earth. / The earth shook, / the heavens poured down rain, / before God, the One of Sinai, / before God, the God of Israel.—Ps 68:8 (Ps 114:7-8) Neither men nor devils can harm the soul that abides in his presence.
How great is your goodness, / which you have stored up for those who fear you, / which you bestow in the sight of men / on those who take refuge in you. / In the shelter of your presence you hide them / from the intrigues of men; / in your dwelling you keep them safe / from the strife of tongues.
—Ps 31:19-20 (Heb 13:5-6) The "secret of his presence" is a secret open to all, but not opened to every one. Nature was an open secret before all men in Newton's day, but it was opened to Newton only. The soul that has discovered this secret of God's presence has entered into his dwelling where nothing can ever disturb its rest, for nothing disturbing can find the "hidden" soul.
Thou has beset me behind and before, / and laid thine hand upon me—Ps 139:5 KJV Have you ever thought of what it means to be "beset" by God? We understand what it is to be so "beset" sometimes by unwelcome and disagreeable people as not to be able to get rid of them, rebuff them as we may. If God "besets" us then, it must mean that he is so close to us in love and care, that no indifference nor even rebuffs on our part can force him to leave us.
Moreover he besets us "behind," that is he goes after us to set straight the things we have made crooked, and to undo the mistakes and failures that lie behind us. Mothers do this for their children all their lives beginning with picking up the scattered toys in the nursery, and going "behind" them as they grow older to undo and atone for all their mistakes. When a troubled, frightened child tells its mother of its wrong doing,
The Presence of God / 203 and asks her sympathy and help, how ready is the mother's ear to listen and her heart to devise ways of help. Suppose the trouble fas been all the child's fault, nonetheless is the mother willing and eager to help it. And nonetheless God is willing and eager to help us, even though our troubles come from our own fault.
If, therefore, we have in our past any mistake or sin which is a present source of distress to us, let us commit it with confidence to the God who is "behind" us, sure that he will make all things, even these very failures, work together for good for ourselves and others, if we will but trust him.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
—Rom 8:28 (Jl 2:25-27) Not only peace however, but holiness also, will be the result of God's recognized presence.
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.—1 Cor 3:16-17 (2 Cor 6:16, Ps 93:5)
The presence of God will drive out sin, as sunshine drives out darkness, if the heart will but open itself to his shining.
This is the message we have heard form him and declare to you:
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
—1] Jn 1:5-7 (1 Cor 6:19-20) To be the "temple of God" means to be his dwelling place, or, as we have it expressed in Eph. 2:22, the "habitation of God." It is almost impossible for the heart of man to conceive of anything so amazing, but if we believe the Bible at all, we
204 / The Open Secret must believe that it is most blessedly true that our hearts are the home of our God, and that he does continually seek to find a dwelling place there.
For the Lord has chosen Zion, / he has desired it for his dwelling:
"This my resting place for ever and ever; / here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.—Ps 132:13-14
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.—Rv 3:20
Like the sunlight which fills the air all around us, and enters wherever there is an opening, so does the presence of God fill the whole universe around us, and enters every heart that opens to receive him.
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.—Jn 14:23 (1 Cor 7:1) Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.—2 Cor 7:1
The Lord's dwelling place must be clean from "everything that contaminates body and spirit," in the very nature of things; and every soul that recognizes the blessed fact of his abiding presence will find itself stirred up to get rid of all that is contrary to his will.
Sing, O Daughter of Zion; / shout aloud, O Israel! / Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, / O Daughter of Jerusalem! / The Lord has taken away your punishment, / he has turned back your enemy. / The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; / never again will you fear any harm / On that day they will say to Jerusalem, /
"Do not fear, O Zion; / do not let your hands hang limp. / The Lord your God is with you, / he is mighty to save. / He will take great delight in you, / he will quiet you with his love, / he will rejoice over you with singing." —Zp 3:14-17
The Presence of God / 205 How then shall we come into personal and practical recognition of this blessed fact that "the Lord encamps around us" and is in our midst?
A few extracts from a book called The Practice of the Presence of God, written by an old monk of the 17th century, will teach us the road to this glorious consummation.
We must establish ourselves in a sense of God's presence by acontinual secret conversation with him, in freedom and simplicity. We must consider God as always with us, and as abiding in us; and must keep ourselves in His presence by a silent and secret conversation with him, thinking of him the oftenest we can. A little lifting up of the heart suffices; a little remembrance of Him, a single act of inward worship, even in the midst of business; these are the methods by which the heart comes to realize His abiding presence.
Let us think of Him, then, the most we can; let us accustom ourselves by degrees to this small but holy exercise. Nobody perceives it; and nothing is easier than to repeat often in the day these little internal adorations. This exercise consists in short ejaculations offered to God, as for instance, "O Lord, here I am, all devoted to thee," or "Lord,
I thank thee that thou art present with me"; or, "Lord, make me what thou wouldst have me to be"; or any other form of words that love may suggest. We must do this without effort or constraint, recalling our minds to God mildly and with tranquillity, as often as we find we are wandering from him.
He requires no great matters of us: a little remembrance of Him from time to time, a little adoration: sometimes to pray for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, and sometimes to return Him thanks for the favors He has given you and still gives you; reminding yourself of Him the oftenest you can. Lift up your heart to Him whenever you are reminded of Him, even at your meals, and when you are
206 / The Open Secret in company. You need not cry very loud, for He can hear the most secret whisper in your soul.
Use yourself by degrees to this little silent exercise, and you will at last form sucha habit of recognizing His abiding presence, that you will never lose the consciousness of it."
All this means simply this, that we "acknowledge God" in all our ways by saying over each moment of our life, "The Lord is here"; and by doing whatever we do to his glory.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.—1 Cor 10:31
How have I erred! God is my home And God himself is here; Why have I looked so far for him Who is nowhere but near?
For God is never so far off As even to be near; He is within; our spirit is The home he holds most dear.
To think of him as by our side, Is almost as untrue, As to remove his throne beyond Those starry skies of blue.
So, all the while I thought myself Homeless, forlorn, and weary, Missing my joy, I walked the earth Myself God's sanctuary.