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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 53. Unhurried Waiting.
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Unhurried Waiting.
All of this is in that Twenty-fifth Psalm, the great guidance Psalm. It is written in the midst of difficulties and sore temptations. It should be studied much by the man seeking to understand guidance. It begins with oft-repeated prayer for guidance that reveals an earnest heart-desire to go God's way. The praying stirs the memory of this man writing to the fact that he hasn't always chosen God's way, but preferred his own. It is the meek man who reverently "fears the Lord" who is guided and taught about the way to go. The path pointed out is not only the right one, but proves to be a loving one for him who is obedient, "unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." This meek, obedient man waits on God; he is in the spirit of constant listening. And he is guided in thinking out his decisions. He is instructed in the way to choose. God does the instructing; the man does the choosing; he is helped in his mental processes. The result specified is two-fold, great peace, his soul dwelling at ease; and power or good success, his seed inheriting the land.
Then comes the great statement that the friendship of the Lord, the exchange of confidences, is given to such men, " and He will show them His covenant"; that is, what He has planned to do, and then the plans actually carried out. And the man writing emphasizes the true spirit that brings all this—"mine eyes are ever toward the Lord." Such a man will know surely how to go, and will have strength to go when the way is hard, and, more, will find the road to lead him into far more of blessing than he had ever thought of.
The man who so waits upon God never decides anything hurriedly. His friends are likely to think him slow perhaps. He is unhurried. He may decide quickly sometimes, but that is because he has been brewing in secret over all the considerations. He is never hurried nor flurried. It is often hard to wait. Our natural impatience and our tired-out nerves prod us on when we should wait. It is always safe to wait. With the greatest need unmet, the keenest crises impending, it is safest to wait till we're clear; that is, clear as to the next thing to do; and the next thing to do is always clear in time to do it.
And yet more: this man who waits on God is so intent on getting God's plan done that he is not concerned about anything else. The plan he is in the process of shaping up may fail. But that will not concern him, for clearly it was not God's plan if under faithful attention it fails. Personal pride to have a plan carried through doesn't bother him a bit; he cares only to carry through Somebody's else plan. Yet when the plan is clearly revealed, or clearly proves bit by bit to be the plan of the Master, he holds to it with a peculiar tenacity. And, as a matter of fact, the plan carefully decided upon in such a way doesn't fail. God is eager to reveal His plan, and He does to the man eager to know. The meek man is guided surely in his planning. There is a fine word from Luke's pen describing the decision to go to Europe the morning after Paul's vision of the Macedonia man. Luke had joined Paul. Paul tells him his vision. "Straightway," he writes, "we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them." * The old version says, "assuredly gathering" in place of "concluding." The word underneath suggests a putting together of this and that, and so drawing an inference. It describes the common process of thinking a thing out. In this case the evidence was very clear, but the word used for the thinking and talking it over is very helpful. They were being guided in their mental processes. God's law of progress is to take the next logical step. But one should not take a step when in doubt about its being the right one.