“CONFIDE IN JEHOVAH”
N. T. Meek
Our scripture says, “Confide in Jehovah with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own intelligence; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths”. It is like getting back to the centre—“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths”. You are taking your bearings, as it were, in God’s presence. You want to find out where you are. How constantly we are faced with this, and we find out where we are as we get on to our knees. If I might speak as believer to believer for a moment, we find out where we are as we simply get on our knees and tell God just what our problems are; just spread them out before Him. These are inspired words, of course. In a certain sense some of what is written may have been beyond the writers, but generally they had some experience of what they wrote. The Scriptures were indited by the Spirit, so they have the authority of a divine Person. Although persons were used to write them, the Scriptures carry, not the authority of persons, but the authority of the Spirit of God. So we should pay attention to the Scriptures.
“Confide in Jehovah with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own intelligence; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths”. Now I think that most of us at some time have done this. Some problem, some question, it may be about a job; it may be about a new school, or a new class—you do not know what the teacher will be like; you do not know what the others will be like—and we are told to “confide in Jehovah with all thy heart”. Just tell Him about it. Learn to develop simple links in this sense with God Himself. You say, ‘I like to pray to Jesus’. Well, that is good. When we are young, especially, we like to speak to Jesus. He is the Saviour; He is a Man, now a Man in heaven, but He has been here, and He knows what problems are. I do not think you ever get beyond speaking to Jesus in this sense. And so if I say, ‘Speak to God’, I could just as well say, ‘Speak to Jesus’. You see, in this time when this person wrote, Jesus had not yet been born,
but the truth remains; it is just as valid all the same, so we could say, ‘Confide in the Lord Jesus with all your heart’. Tell Him about it. Of course it is equally true that you can speak to the Father. The Lord Jesus often encouraged the disciples to confide in the Father. On several occasions He spoke about Him—of how the Father cares for us, how He has affection for us, and that it was He who drew us to Jesus. In that beautiful section at the end of John’s gospel, the Lord said a great deal about the Father. All this is to encourage us to confide in the Father also.
I remember that when we were children we had little strips of paper about the size of dominoes, and they had just a word on them. On Sunday afternoon, when it was wet, we had to stop at home because it was a mile to the meeting room, and we used to stretch these strips out, to make up texts from a list. This was one of them, “Confide in Jehovah with all thy heart” (It was years afterwards, I suppose I was in my teens, before I really did). I can remember that text now on the floor. We only used to go into that room on Sundays, and we would kneel down there and stretch all these words out, “Confide in Jehovah with all thy heart”. One day, when I was facing a crisis, I remember learning to do that. They are very fine, you know, these experiences, and they remain with you; they are intended to remain with us, and to deepen with us, until it becomes, one might say, second nature to a believer always to refer everything to the Lord Himself.
Here is a problem; here is a question; here is a condition to be met. Shall I work it out? Shall I try to plumb the thing entirely by myself? We are expressly warned not to do that—“Lean not unto thine own intelligence; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths”.
So the scripture goes on to speak about instruction, and even of His chastisement. God would use certain circumstances, trials, and experiences in our lives that we would rather not go through. God does that, you know. It is never envisaged that the pathway of the believer will be without its difficulties, but it says, ‘Do not despise it’. The writer to the Hebrews uses this scripture, “Despise not the instruction of Jehovah, neither be weary of his chastisement”. You might get, as we say, to the end of your tether, and often we make things worse for ourselves by rebelling against the situation in which we are. The Lord would appeal to us—in this scripture it says, “My son”—how affectionate—“Despise not the instruction of Jehovah, neither be weary of his chastisement; for whom Jehovah loveth he chasteneth”.
You might think that because you are chastened, because there is discipline upon you, because things are not easy, the Lord has ceased to love you; but this rather puts it the other way, that the very fact of your going through it is an evidence that the Lord loves you. It says,
“even as a father the son
in whom he delighteth”.
Paul adds something more to this. He says, “to the partaking of his holiness”, Hebrews 12: 10. It is a very deep matter, that we might be formed in that attribute which belongs to God, His holiness.
Well, I just leave these words with us, and I commend them to us all that we may learn what it is always to get before the Lord, firstly as to our sins, and then as to every subsequent matter. May it be so for His name’s sake.
From a preaching at Sandwell (Birmingham)
17 March 1974
Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 4QY, England Printed by High Speed Printing Limited, 43 Conduit Street, London, W1S 2YJ