Reflections on "My Utmost" November 17 Part II

""At any cost, by any road" means nothing self-chosen in the way God brings us to the goal. There is no possibility of questioning when God speaks if He speaks to His own nature in me; prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says – "Come," I simply come; when He says – "Let go," I let go; when He says – "Trust in God in this matter," I do trust. The whole working out is the evidence that the nature of God is in me. God’s revelation of Himself to me is determined by my character, not by God’s character."

As an earlier believer, I used to think that I had to guard my heart and evaluate the desires which would spring up in me. If I wanted to write, or to walk, I would ask myself if this was God's will for me.

Then I read the well-repeated, yet oft-misunderstood, verses from Philippians:

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

He works into us the very things that He wants us to do, so that the things that we want naturally are the very things that He wants us to do. This revelation helped me to understand Psalm 37:4:

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Sometimes, though, I would get worried, because I had read that the human heart is not something to be trusted:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

Yet this stern admission is tempered by the promises of the new covenant, even by the same prophet:

"And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." (Jeremiah 24:7)

and

"And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:" (Jeremiah 32:39)

I cannot leave out the wonderful promise of the gospel revealed to the very stern prophet Ezekiel:

"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

"That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11: 19-20)

So, when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving by grace the Holy Spirit, that He may dwell and direct us in all things, we need no longer chronically question every thought, motive, and desire. We are called to believe, receive, and though His power achieve mighty things!