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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadQuiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems: 54. Guided in Judgment.
TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 54. Guided in Judgment.
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Guided in Judgment.
A drop of wine gives the flavor of the cask. A simple straw will show the direction of the wind. Very simple occurrences sometimes re Act_16:10, American Revision.
veal how God guides. Some very simple instances of this sort came to my attention recently. A woman who has a flock of poultry to attend noticed one morning that a brood of very young Plymouth Rocks were not well. They seemed droopy and distressed. She had been caring for them thoughtfully, and could not make out the cause of their distress. The thermometer in the brooder where the little ones made their home indicated a proper temperature. Her womanly heart was moved with pity for them. As she stood watching, perplexed, she thought of how God must look down and pity too, and leaning against the corner of the hen-house quietly prayed to be shown the difficulty. At once it occurred to her to examine the heating lamp in the brooder. It proved to need a larger burner to make enough heat; the thermometer was not registering accurately. The change was quickly made, the temperature rose, and the little chicks were soon happy and contented.
A business man of Belfast, well known in that city, told this bit of his experience to a group of men in the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting room one noon. He is a builder, and recognized as an expert in that business. He had been called to examine a large building which was being seriously shaken and jarred by the motion of the machinery. Efforts had been made to find why the machinery shook the building so, but they failed to reveal the defect in construction. He was called in as an expert. He examined the building most thoroughly, but could find no faulty place. It was one of the best constructed buildings he had ever examined, he said. He was much puzzled to know where the defect could be, and felt quite nonplussed.
As he stood looking in his perplexity, he sent up a softly breathed prayer to be shown where the trouble was. At once his thought went to a certain large post or beam on which part of the machinery rested. He went on to notice that it was not properly adjusted. There was plainly the cause of the violent jarring of the building by the machinery. Yet he had gone painstakingly over the whole structure without finding it, as had other experts. The defect was pointed out and remedied, and all jarring ceased. Could there be simpler and yet more direct illustrations of the old bit, "The meek will He guide in his mental processes?"
A small group of young men entrusted with the supervision of one of the great religious activities among young men were spending a day in conference and prayer. Men were to be chosen for certain very important positions. A mistake in choosing would have very serious results. They talked over the men in mind and their suitability to the tasks involved, and prayed together. A decision was reached about certain men, but reached tentatively, not decisively, not finally. The suggestion was made that they separate, and pray and think separately, and then come together again. The matter was so serious that there must be no mis-step or mistake. They did so, and while in prayer alone the conviction came that it would not be best to send a certain man tentatively decided upon for a certain post. More prayer and conference followed, and the arrangements were readjusted.
So were these men guided in their mental processes. So were they guided to plan out unhurriedly with utmost thoroughness their serious task. These men were keen Bible students, with discipline of judgment much above the average, and with a rare openness of mind to the suggestions of God's Spirit, as a result of long habit. Here was the habit into which they had been led through long experience, of being guided by the Spirit through their trained thinking powers. The withdrawal from each other's presence made them more susceptible to the presence of the One whose will they were bent on doing.