by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
January, 1935
Divine Guidance.
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:5, 6). Note well the order here: the promise at the close of the passage is conditional upon our meeting three requirements. First, we are to have full confidence in the Lord. The Hebrew verb for “trust” here literally means “to lean upon”: it conveys the idea of one who is conscious of feebleness turning unto and resting upon a stronger one for support. To “trust in the Lord” signifies to count upon Him in every emergency, to look to Him for the supply of every need, to say with the Psalmist “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psa. 23:1). It means that we cast all our cares upon Him, drawing from Him strength day by day and hour by hour and thus proving the sufficiency of His grace. It means for the Christian to continue as he began: when we first cast ourselves upon Him as lost sinners, we abandoned all our own doings and relied upon His abounding mercy. Rely now on His wisdom, power and grace.
But what is meant by “trust in the LORD with all thine heart”? First, the giving unto God of our undivided confidence, not looking to any other for help and relief. Second, turning to Him with childlike simplicity. When a little one trusts there is no reasoning, but a simple taking of the parent’s words at their face value, being fully assured that his father will make good what he has said; he dwells not on the difficulties which may be in the way, but expects a fulfillment of what is promised. So it should be with us and our heavenly Father’s words. Third, it means with our affections going out to Him: love “believeth all things, hopeth all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). Thus, to trust in the Lord, “with all our heart” is love’s reliance in believing dependence and expectation.
The second requirement is, “and lean not unto thine own understanding,” which means we are not to trust in our own wisdom or rely upon the dictates of human reason. The highest act of human reason is to disown its sufficiency and bow before the wisdom of God. To lean unto our own understanding is to rest upon a broken reed, for it has been deranged by sin; yet many find it harder to repudiate their own wisdom than they do to abandon their own righteousness. Many of God’s ways are “past finding out,” and to seek to solve the mysteries of Providence is the finite attempting to comprehend the Infinite, which is not only being guilty of presumptuous sin, but is acting against our own well being. Philosophizing about our lot, reasoning about our circumstances, is fatal to rest of soul and peace of heart.
Third, “in all thy ways acknowledge Him.” This means, first, we must ask God’s permission for all that we do, and not act without His leave; only then do we conduct ourselves as dutiful children and respectful servants. It means, second, that we seek God’s guidance in every undertaking, acknowledging our ignorance and owning our complete dependence upon Him. “In every thing by prayer and supplication” (Phil. 4:6): only so is God’s lordship over us owned in a practical way. It means, third, seeking God’s glory in all our ways: “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Ah, if we only did so, how very different many of our “ways” would be! If we more frequently paused and inquired, Will this be for God’s glory? we should be withheld from much sinning and from much folly, with all its painful consequences. It means, fourth, seeking God’s blessing upon everything. Here is another simple and sufficient rule: anything on which I cannot ask God’s blessing is WRONG.
“And He shall direct thy paths”: meet the three conditions mentioned above and here is the sure consequence. The need for being directed by God is real and pressing. Left to ourselves we are no better off than a rudderless ship or a motor-car without a steeringwheel. It is not without reason that the Lord’s people are so often termed “sheep,” for no other creature is so apt to stray or has such a propensity to wander. The Hebrew word for “direct” means “to make straight.” We are living in a world where everything is crooked: sin has thrown everything out of joint, and in consequence, confusion, worse, confoundedness, abounds all around us. A deceitful heart, a wicked world, and a subtle Devil, are ever seeking to lead us astray and compass our destruction. How necessary it is, then, for God to “direct our paths.”
What is meant by “He shall direct thy paths”? It means, He will make clear to me the course of duty. Let this be firmly grasped: God’s “will” always lies in the path of duty, and never runs counter thereto. Much needless uncertainty and perplexity would be spared if only this principle were steadily recognised. When you feel a strong desire or “prompting” to shirk a plain duty, you may be assured it is a temptation from Satan, and not the “leading” of the Holy Spirit. For example, it is contrary to God’s revealed will for a woman to be constantly attending meetings to the neglect of her children and home. It is shirking his responsibility for the husband to go off alone in the evenings, even in religious luxuriation, and leave his tired wife to wash the dishes and put the children to bed. It is a sin for a Christian employee to read the Scripture or “speak to people about their souls” during office or business hours.
The difficulty arises when it appears that we have to choose between two or more duties, or when some important change has to be made in our circumstances. There are many people who think they want to be guided by God when some crisis arrives or some important decision has to be made; but few of them are prepared to meet the requirements as intimated in our opening paragraphs. The fact is that GOD was rarely in their thoughts before the emergency arose: pleasing Him exercised them not while things were going smoothly for them. But when difficulty and trouble confronts them, when they are at their own wits end how to act, they suddenly become very pious, turn to the Lord, earnestly ask Him to direct them, and make His way plain before their face.
But God cannot be imposed upon in such a manner. Usually such people make a rash decision and bring themselves into still greater difficulties, and then they attempt to console themselves with “Well, I sought God’s guidance.” Ah, my reader, God is not to be mocked like that: if we ignore His claims upon us when the sailing is pleasant, we cannot count upon Him delivering us when the storm comes. The One we have to do with is holy and He will not set a premium upon Godlessness (called by many, “carelessness”), even though we howl like beasts when in anguish (Hosea 7:14). On the other hand, if we diligently seek grace to walk with God day by day, regulating our ways by His commandments, then we may rightfully count upon His aid in every emergency that arises.
But how is the conscientious Christian to act when some emergency confronts him? Suppose he stands at the parting of the ways: two paths, two alternatives, are before him, and he knows not which to choose: what must he do? First, let him heed that most necessary word, which as a rule of general application is ever binding upon us, “he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:16). To act from a sudden impulse never becomes a child of God, and to rush ahead of the Lord is sure to involve us in painful consequences. “The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation (deliverance) of the LORD” (Lam. 3:25, 26). To act in haste generally means that afterward we shall repent at leisure. O how much each of us needs to beg the Lord to daily lay His cooling and quietening hand upon our feverish flesh!
Second, seek unto the Lord for Him to empty your heart of every wish of your own. It is impossible for us to sincerely pray “Thy will be done,” until our own will has, by the power of the Holy Spirit, been brought into complete subjection to God. Just so long as there is secret (but real) preference in my heart, my judgment will be biased. While my heart is really set upon the attainment of a certain object, then I am only mocking God when I ask Him to make His way plain before my face; and I am sure to misinterpret all His providences, twisting them to fit my own desire. If an obstacle be in my path, I shall then regard it as a “testing of faith”; if a barrier be removed, I at once jump to the conclusion that God is “undertaking” for me, when instead He may be testing, on the eve of giving me up to my own “heart’s lusts” (Psa. 81:12).
This is a point of supreme importance for those who desire their steps to be truly “ordered of the Lord.” We cannot discern His best for us while the heart has its own preference. Thus it is imperative that we ask God to empty our hearts of all personal preferences, to remove any secret and set desire of our own. But often it is far from easy to take this attitude before God, the more so if we are not in the habit of seeking grace to mortify the flesh. By nature each of us wants his own way, and chafes against every curb placed upon him. But just as a photographic plate must be a blank if it is to receive the impression of a picture upon it, so our hearts must be freed from their personal bias if God is to work in us “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
If you find that as you continue waiting upon God the inward struggle between the “flesh” and the “Spirit” continues, and you have not reached the point where you can honestly say, “Have Thine own way, Lord,” then a season of fasting is in order. In Ezra 8:21 we read, “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones.” This is written for our instruction, and even a glance at it suffices to show it is pertinent to our present inquiry. Nor is fasting a religious exercise peculiar to Old Testament times, for in Acts 13:3 we are told that before Barnabas and Saul were sent forth on their missionary journey by the church at Antioch, “When they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” There is nothing meritorious in fasting, but it expresses humility of soul and earnestness of heart.
The next thing is to humbly and sincerely acknowledge to God our ignorance, requesting Him not to leave us to ourselves. Tell Him frankly that you are perplexed and know not what to do, and that you deserve to be left in this woeful plight. But plead before Him His own promise, and beg Him for Christ’s sake to now make it good to you: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:5, 6). Ask Him to grant the wisdom so much needed, that you may judge rightly, that you may discern clearly what will promote your spiritual welfare, and therefore be most for His glory.
“Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psa. 37:5). In the interval of waiting, confer not with flesh and blood: if you go to fellow-Christians for advice, most probably no two of them will agree, and their discordant counsel will only confuse you. Instead of looking to man for help “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). Be on the look-out for God’s answer: mark attentively each movement of His providence, for as a straw in the air indicates which way the wind is blowing so the hand of God may often be discerned by a spiritual eye in what are trifling incidents to others. “And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee” (2 Sam. 5:24).
Finally, remember that we need not only light from the Lord to discover unto us our duty in particular cases, but, that being obtained, we also need His presence to accompany us, so that we may be enabled to rightly follow the path in which He bids us go.
Moses realised this when he said to the Lord “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” (Exo. 33:15). If we have not the presence of God with us in an undertaking —that is, His approval upon it, His assistance in it, and His blessing upon it—then we shall find it a snare if not a curse to us.
As a general rule it is better for us to trouble our minds very little about “guidance”— that is God’s work: our business is to walk in obedience to Him day by day. As we do so, there is wrought within us a prudence which will preserve us from all serious mistakes. “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts” (Psa. 119:100). The man who keeps God’s precepts becomes endowed with a wisdom which far surpasses that possessed by the sages of antiquity or the learning of philosophers. “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness” (Psa. 112:4). The upright man may experience his days of darkness, but when the hour of emergency arrives light shall be given him by God. Serve God with all your might today, and you may calmly and safely leave the future with Him. A duteous conformity to what is right shall be followed by a luminous discernment of what would be wrong.
Seek earnestly to get the fear of God fixed in your heart so that you tremble at His Word (Isa. 66:2) and are really afraid of displeasing Him. “What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose” (Psa. 25:12). “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28). “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD” (Hosea 6:3). The more we grow in grace the fuller will be our knowledge of God’s revealed will. The more we cultivate the practice of seeking to please God in all things, the more light shall we have for our path. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8): if our motive be right, our vision will be clear.
“The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them” (Prov. 11:3). The upright man will not willingly and knowingly go aside into crooked paths: the honest heart is not bewildered by domineering lusts nor blinded by corrupt motives: having a tender conscience he possesses keen spiritual discernment; but the crooked policy of the wicked involves them in increasing trouble and ends in their eternal ruin. “The righteousness of the perfect (sincere) shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness” (Prov. 11:5): an eye single to God’s glory delivers from those snares in which the ungodly are taken. “Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things” (Prov. 28:5). Unbridled passions and unmortified lusts becloud the understanding and pervert the judgment till men call good “evil” and evil “good” (Isa. 5:20); but he who seeks to be subject to the Lord shall be given discretion.
“The LORD shall direct thy paths.” First, by His Word: not in some magical way so as to encourage laziness, nor like consulting a cookery-book full of recipes for all occasions, but by warning us of the by-ways of sin and folly and by making known the paths of righteousness and blessing. Second, by His Spirit: giving us strength to obey the precepts of God, causing us to wait patiently on the Lord for directions, enabling us to apply the rules of Holy Writ to the varied duties of our lives, bringing to our remembrance a word in due season. Third, by His providences: causing friends to fail us so that we are delivered from leaning upon the arm of flesh, thwarting our carnal plans so that we are preserved from shipwreck, shutting doors which it would not be good for us to enter, and opening doors before us which none can shut.—A.W.P.
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