GUIDANCE AS TO SECULAR BUSINESS
GUIDANCE AS TO SECULAR BUSINESS
How should I know that I was guided of God to any particular place, in order to pursue my trade or calling? First, I must ascertain that I am simply free to go anywhere for the express purpose of pursuing my calling. I mean, that I am not, so to speak, previously engaged as Christ’s servant on earth. In such a case, I am not at liberty to choose any place but for His service. Ephesus was an excellent place for Paul’s business; and Thessalonica was, on the contrary, a very indifferent one; and yet Paul, as Christ’s servant, must not remain at Ephesus, and he must remain at Thessalonica. This point being settled, the next is, that I am going, dependent on God, and not on what man may promise me. There is an assurance in my soul of His hand being with me. I am not looking for help or promises from man to assure me. I may get them [p. 64] afterwards, to confirm me that I am in the right path; but the first and simple thing is the assurance that my Father marks the way for me to go here, instead of there. I may see nothing to favour me, and much to discourage me; but faith is not surprised by a famine, that is, nothing to see; it relies on God, and God effects His own will in me in the end. There are certain things which, as I may say, belong to faith. If I am choosing any place in faith, I do not choose one above my present means; for, if I am dependent on God, I do not go into debt. I know that He can preserve the barrel of meal from wasting. If I am in faith, I do not, to use a common phrase, make an appearance. I am real in everything, because I am dependent on God. Like Ruth, I can afford to glean in the field on a hot summer’s day, because I know in whom I have believed, and that I am in the right way.
Again, I do not attempt to do what I am not able to do, seeing that to act on the motto, ‘Fortune favours the brave,’ is simply natural. Bravery is not faith, and yet faith is brave; but it never leads a man to assume to do what he is not qualified to do well.
But again - If I am acting in faith, I am sure to be diligent, earnest, and ready to learn. The very dependence I have on God provokes me to patient, laborious attention to that which I believe He has ordained for me as my labour for my daily bread down here. The more the faith, the more the endurance in the face of the most irksome and trying difficulties. I think, too, that if I am appointed by Christ in His grace to serve Him, that God will balk me wherever I go in pursuit of my business, until I make His service paramount. If I earn wages, I shall only earn it to “put it into a bag with holes”. If I choose for myself and go into the world to become prosperous and rich, He will upset my cup some day, and teach my heart that Beersheba is to be preferred to Rehoboth (see Genesis 26: 22, 32).