He Came To His Own


He Came to His Own.





The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in

His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and

they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night,

staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of

the hinges.



Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of l
fe to God. And if

the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are _afraid_ of

God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing

in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because

we do not _know_ God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the

eleven was, "that they may _know_ Thee the only true God, and Jesus

Christ whom Thou didst send."



To understand God's will we must understand something of His character,

Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to

suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use.

The first is the word _father_. "Father" stands for strength, loving

strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones.

All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine

word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the

finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then

remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the

finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your _life_--I am not

talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too--His will

for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most

dearly loved.



The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was

made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean

the word _mother_. If father stands for strength, mother stands for

love,--great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she

not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley

of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the

love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the

life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest

mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories

to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much

finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew.



The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His

wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her

wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is

not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father"

includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of

the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love

of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a

mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart.



The third word is _friend_. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper

meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all

acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who

are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer

meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and

steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The

English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances,

and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your

life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a

moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then

remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend

than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for

your life is such a one as that word would suggest.



The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here.

The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of

lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine

word _lover_. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into

friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest

friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre

of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And

she--she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in

the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of

the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover,

man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let

me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover--shall I say in yet more

reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than

the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life

and mine--it hushes my heart to say it--is a lover's plan for his only

loved one.



The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther

on, and higher up, the word _husband_. This is the word on the man side

for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover

relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a

finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's

plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell

sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover _plus_. He is all that

the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful.

Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two

persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a

moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember

this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful

husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's

will for his life's friend and companion.



Now, please, do not _you_ take one of these words, and say, "I like that";

and _you_ another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and

_you_ another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You

must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then

put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, _and

more_.



You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put

together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a

mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and

chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you

reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God.



And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the

body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business

matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it

includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it

includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought

into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs

into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God.







The One Purpose of Prayer.





Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that

done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can

offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different

forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true

prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing

that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably

with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock

your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be _endured_: it is bitter,

but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be

_endured_." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a

superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills

for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very

best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has

a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite

patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the

tangled skein of human life, through the human will.



It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for

us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will

shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that

height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works

with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He

Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as

with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be

peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they

insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great

shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's

Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they

chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was

not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first

would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can

be done through the human will.



His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a

strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being

aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft

times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of

our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And

where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the

higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily

difficulty is removed by Him.



There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First

of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His

full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the

centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch

with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences

with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part

of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes

marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician.

But--very reverently--He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in

his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more,

we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the

circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no

forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view.



There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a

not reaching out after _all_ that He has for us. And at the other swing of

the pendulum there may be a sort of _logical praying_ for some desirable

thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I

mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's

explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a

certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we

should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying

in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical

thinking: _then_ quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for

_you_, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He

touches through you.







The Spirit's Prayer Room.





There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and

God's will.[39] "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity:

for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh

intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that

searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He

maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."



Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse

seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit

within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry,

so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to

pray _as we ought_. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother

there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows

how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what

best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me.

He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to

the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is

thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in

our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity

quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the

heart-searcher--God listening above--knows fully what this praying Spirit

is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He

recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on

the earth by His own Spirit.



And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He

teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He

Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's

will--that is to pray for the thing God has planned--in us before we have

yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is.



We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this

indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to

pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the

particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as

the medium of His praying.



Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular

thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy

Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the

Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will,

what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here."







How to Find God's Will.





We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled

in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to

read intelligently His will.



It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there

are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of

government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that

we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his

own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life.

God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to

reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If

the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what

service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain.



Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but

essential. I must keep _in touch_ with Him so He has an open ear to talk

into. I must _delight_ to do His will, _because it is His_. The third

thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble

here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. _His Word must be

allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will_. Many of us

stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men

sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the

lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would

prayerfully _absorb_ the Book, there would come a better poised judgment.

We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He

reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man--that is the man willing to

yield his will to a higher will--will He guide in his judgment, that is,

in his mental processes.[40]



This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.[41]

"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask

anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He

heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we

have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those

already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition

here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand.

Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He

wants a thing and I want it and we join--that combination cannot be

broken.



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