WE NEED GUIDANCE TO SUIT OUR OBJECT, NOT TO FIND ONE
WE NEED GUIDANCE TO SUIT OUR OBJECT, NOT TO FIND ONE
As to guidance, I believe it would be in proportion as Christ is simply our object. Guidance itself is very often our object. We are more anxious to ascertain the best way to go, in order that we may not suffer from mistakes, than simply because we desire nothing but to [p. 62] be near Christ and in communion with Him as the one object of our hearts. We know very well that when we have any commanding object naturally, we do not want to be guided to it. We have it. A mother knows that her child is her object. She does not want guidance as to that. She may require guidance as to the best way of caring for the child; but because the object of her affection is so distinct, she quickly adopts whatever promises to be the best for it. She has no doubt what the object is, her only difficulty is what would suit it best; and whatever she adopts, she adopts with simple and unequivocal reference to her object. Consequently, if she knows what suits it, she never needs guidance. Thus, if Christ be my object, so distinctly and unequivocally that He stands out always before me, I need no guidance to find or to secure Him: my only concern is, to do everything suited to Him. I have no doubt as to His being my object, my only question is what suits Him. When I know this, all is easy and happy; and certain it is, that when He is our object without any question, there is no great difficulty, with the Word of God in our hands, and the Spirit of God within us, in determining what suits Him.
Supposing for a moment that we adopt a wrong course, and yet have adopted it believing it would suit Him, it is not because we judged that it would be a wise course, for then our own conduct would be our object; but supposing we have adopted it, simply and solely because we had judged that it would suit Him, what is the consequence when we are thus mistaken? It is this: that, before very long, we find out our mistake, and see that it is unsuitable. The mistake in such a case is not that we have allowed another object to control us, but the course we are pursuing, as suited to Christ, is found in practice to be unsuitable to Him. In such a case we have taken counsel from our own minds; and we have not sufficiently and closely studied His mind.
[p. 63] It is here where some truly devoted souls fail very much. There is no doubt of their personal attachment to Him; but they consult and acquire from their own minds and taste how they are to please Christ. This is what Martha did, instead of studying His mind to see what would please Him. Sometimes my own love for Him may be my object; but the more distinctly He is my object, the more constantly and closely am I found with Him, imbibing His mind as He has revealed it. And thus from association with Him, and the fulness of His communications, I am convinced that I can never, in any other way, discover what will suit Him.
If Christ were our one commanding object, how difficulties and questions would be solved; and if, like the bride in Canticles, we lost sight of Him for a moment, as soon as He was unquestionably our object, and proved to be so, the right line would open to us again, as to her; and we should have all the guidance we desired - even pleasing Him, in company with Himself.