GUIDANCE

GUIDANCE

When we ask for guidance about a matter in which we are too much engrossed, or which is in a way necessary to us, we are not free enough to receive His mind. The heart is like a sheet of paper, all written over with our own desires.

Nothing is really necessary for us but Christ; and when we are simply happy in Him we are ready for any counsel which He may give us. He orders us here in the wilderness, because it is a wilderness, and we are needy in it, but we best understand His orders when we are first satisfied in His fulness. When I am very happy in Him, outside of what I need here, I am sure, as I walk in faith, to be kept from what would be a hindrance to my communion with Him.

Coincidences buoy up the natural mind, and we must take care that they do not supersede faith, though they may sometimes confirm faith. Thus there are three things necessary for guidance. First, that you are obedient, prepared in heart to act as He would act; secondly, that you understand His present relation to things here; thirdly, that you acquire His ^[p. 213] mind from the word as a whole, for it is the knowledge of His mind that imparts colour and beauty like His to our ways.