February 1928
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
77
deliverance were impossible. W e wonder how our lives' are ever going to be put straight, how they are ever going to be ordered and peaceful and restful again. There is. the contrast : helplessness on the one hand, and ordered, settled, quiet restfulness on the other hand ; the contrast between our poverty and God’s riches ; the contrast between our uselessness in God’s service and what He wants to do with us and make of us. The contrast is bitterly and painfully felt in many instances. P utting S elf in G od ’ s P lace The remedy for that condition is. not far to seek. “Why speak ye not a word o f bringing back the king ?” they said to one another. If the king came back, things would be different; surely things would be all right. I f David were once again on the throne, then anarchical conditions would pass, away, and once again we should have stable and set tled government. That sort of thing is true o f you and me. The will o f God so often appears to us, in our unbe lief and distrust of Him, as something that is harsh and hard. W e do our best to escape from it, to evade it, and it is only when He has got us, as it were, into a corner, and we cannot escape any more, that we sdy, “ Thy will be done.” But that will of God is good and acceptable and perfect ; it is the will o f One who loves you ; it is the will o f One who loves you so much that He has even given His beloved Son to die in your stead ; it is the will of One who has purposed the very best for your life and for mine, and if we do not love God’s will, it is because we do not really know God. The trouble with our restlessness and dissatisfaction is due to the fact that we have been trying to put ourselves in God’s place. That is not merely a foolish thing from the point o f view of the Christian, but if you thifik of it in a larger sense it is a most foolish thing to try to do, having regard to the fundamental relationship between the creature and the Creator. God has made you and me for Himself, and quite naturally, therefore, He knows the thing that is really best for us. We look round in this wonderful world in which we live, and discover that every thing in it obeys Him. It is God’s law that prevents this universe from being a chaos. It does not matter where you look, in all the natural realm by which you are sur rounded, God’s law is absolutely obeyed. But when we look into our little life, there God’s law is not obeyed, God’s will is not done, and we shrink from God’s will as from something which would injure us, and we would evade it, if we possibly could. But until God’s will has its way with us God cannot bless us. All the riches of His grace and love and power are for you and me, and nothing prevents our being blèssed except oUr own unwillingness. It is not God’s will that we should be restless, or wretched, or unhappy, but that we should be enriched by Him in all things ; and God can only fulfil His will and have His own way as we are prepared to let His will reign and rule in these lives of ours. The poor Israelites were in a sorry condition, abso lutely helpless and broken down before their enemies. What did they want? Before everything else they wanted the king back on the throne. It was not until he came back that all those conditions could be put right. Without fur ther elaboration on my part you will understand well enough what these things are in your own life. We know our own failures, the bitterness o f our experience and the poverty which is -ours, when we might be so greatly enriched ; and the secret of getting back again what we have lost lies in bringing back the King.
THIS WOMAN OF BOLIVIA GIVES. JESUS A THRONE THROUGH AN AGENT OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY SHE HAS BEEN LED TO MAKE HIM KING IN HER LIFEl
E nthron ing T he K ing I do not know how some Christians face life with all its problems and disappointments and perplexities, unless they know that God is overruling and guiding and direct ing them. If you and I want to have an easy yoke and a light burden, we must put the King back in the place where He ought to be, perhaps where for some o f us He never has been. Just in proportion as you receive Him, in that propor tion you will know the peace and the rest He gives to all heavy-laden ones who look to Him and live. You will never find complete satisfaction and equipment and enrichment in your life until you know what it is to receive Him as Master, or, to go back to the Old Testament word, until you bring back the King. The method o f doing this is quite simply the method o f faith. It is not the method of self-discipline, it is not the method o f self-effort and struggle. Some of us have honestly tried that, and we have been defeated and disappointed over and over again. It is not any merely outward and formal act on our part which can effect that mighty transformation. Some o f us have done that. God’s way o.f receiving the Lord Jesus as Master is precisely the same as God’s way o f receiving Him as our Savior. It is the way of faith. “ Why speak ye not a word o f bringing back the King?” What does it mean to bring back the King? To obey, the obedience of faith, the recognition that henceforth I have no right or business to run my own life, to manage my own affairs, to take my own way, to carry out my own will. But as soon as ever I am prepared to place the government upon His shoulder, to bring back the King, to lay down the arms of rebellion at His feet and to surrender to Him my will, my cherished desires, my deepest longings-—and surely I am surrendering to One who is perfect and ab solute; love—as soon as I do that, then of the increase of my peace there is no end.
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