KEEPING THE EYE ON GOD
KEEPING THE EYE ON GOD
It is always gratifying to see those we have long known in Christ still holding on, as we say, ‘braving the battle and the breeze’.
And if those past and gone were a “cloud of witnesses” to encourage us, surely the living and triumphant ones must be still more so!
Marah told the true character of the wilderness, and that they were not to be without God there. He can make the bitter water sweet, and this becomes a statute and an ordinance in Israel.
When we are troubled by any set of circumstances we look about to see how we can alter them or escape from them. But this is not the statute; the statute is that there is nothing here but Marah. But God is able, in answer to His people’s cry, to convert it into sweetness and blessing.
It is a great secret to keep the eye on God; expecting nothing down here but Marah, yet confident in God to sweeten it to us. We must never be discouraged because of the nature of the wilderness, for God is with us in it; and you will find that the bitterest cup to each servant of the Lord became the sweetest in the end. The prison to Joseph, Patmos to John, Rome to Paul. From the glory came the fiery law. From the glory came Jesus, the Son of God; the one, the unbending and terrific demand of God on man; the other, the fullest expression of the love of [p. 164] God for man. But Israel, like ourselves in minor things, could not look to the end of that which is abolished.
I believe if we desire an open door, and to silence our enemies, it must be by continued faithfulness, and not by discussion and argument. An open door is promised to the one with a little strength. If he had not a little strength, what use would a door be to him? and unless he has the right qualification for entering it, why should he be allowed to enter it? Therefore be must hold fast “my word”, and not deny “my name”, and the effect is, the enemies shall “know that I have loved thee”. (Revelation 3: 9) Concession or conference with self-will never ends well, for it is respecting that which ought in limine to be ignored! Like other things, we are tested in our work, as to how much is really for the Lord, and how much for the gratification of associating with congenial minds.
It is a great thing to get the mind detained by and occupied with Scripture. The difficulty in these days is that the mind is so engrossed with one’s lawful calling that it takes time to loosen it from the waggon and the rough pavements and yoke it to a balloon! Your mind is but an instrument, and in reading Scripture you often skip over the shades of meaning that are grouped together in a passage. But writing it out and meditating on it fixes the mind and occupies it. It is a great thing to get coloured with the mind of God. The mind is a servant, and you have to keep it attentive and subject, Often a person thinks he knows a truth, but if you ask him to state it he cannot, because he has been contented with the outline, or the conviction of its beauty, without labouring to master its details. Take for instance 1 Peter 3: 8. What is the distinction between these five qualities?