Submission To God # 1

Submission To God # 1

"The Lord gave - and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

When some painful loss or severe calamity befalls them, there are many who bemoan the fact that they do not have the resignation which was the patriarch's - even under more extreme circumstances - but it is to be feared that few make any serious attempt to ascertain why they are so lacking, or that the right explanation would be arrived at if they did. Probably the majority of the professing Christians would say: "it is because the Lord has not been pleased to give me the necessary grace." Pious as that may sound, in many cases, it would be the language of insincerity - if not of something worse. If that were said by way of excuse or self-extenuation for a spirit of murmuring, it is a wicked slander upon the Divine character! Let it be clearly recognized that the real reason - and the only reason, so far as we are concerned - why God not grant us more grace, is because we have failed to use that which He has already bestowed upon us! (Luke 8:18).

Acquiescence in the Divine providence, when God takes from us that which is near and dear, is not some high spiritual attainment which is reached on special occasions. Just as one who is not accustomed to the regular use of certain muscles is incapable of any strenuous exercise of them when put to a real test, so it is with employment of our graces. The average man who constantly drives around in his car, or the one who sits most for the day in his office and rides on the bus or train to and from his work - would be weary if he walked five miles on a stretch, quite exhausted if it were ten, and utterly unable to hold out for twenty.

But a shepherd or farmer who spent most of his life on his feet crossing the moors or walking in his fields, would find it no undue strain to cover a single journey of twenty miles. One who has allowed his mind to wander here and there while engaged in ordinary reading, cannot suddenly concentrate on a good book when he wishes to do so. The same principle obtains in the spiritual realm: There is no such thing as putting forth an extraordinary effort of any grace - if it is not in regular exercise.

Returning to our next text: What was the character of the man who gave expression to those God-honoring words? It is very important to weigh carefully the question, for character and conduct are as inseparably connected, as are cause and effect. The answer is supplied in the context. These words issued from the heart of one who was "perfect (sincere) and upright, and one who feared God, and shunned evil" (Job 1:1), which is but an amplified way of saying that he was a pious man.

Now, the first characteristic and evidence of genuine piety is an obedient walk; and obedience is doing the will of God from the heart. Or in other words, obedience is a submission to His authority, a conducting of myself according to the rules He has prescribed for me. If - then, I have formed the habit of conforming to God's perceptive will (which necessarily presupposes denying the lusts of the flesh), there will be little difficulty in submitting myself to His providential will. If I am faithful in doing the former, I shall be unmurmuring in acquiescing with the latter. But if I flout the one, I shall rebel against the other.

"The Lord gave - and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." That was language of one who was accustomed to own the authority of God, as his threefold "the Lord" intimates.

It was the language of one who had surrendered to His righteous claims, and the throne of whose heart was really occupied by Him. It was not the sudden outburst of one who had hitherto followed his own desires and devices - but rather of a genuine saint who had truly been subject to the Divine will. It was the language of one who recognized and owned that God had a perfect right to order his lot and life - just as it seemed good in His sight. It was the language of one who held everything in subjection to the will of Him with whom he had to do. It was not an exceptional spasm of piety - but rather that which made manifest the general tenor of his spirituality. The trials of life neither make, nor mar us, my reader; but instead, they demonstrate what is in us, what we really are: They make manifest the hidden things of our heart.

There is a will of God which we are required to perform - and there is also a will of God in which we should thankfully acquiesce. The former is His perceptive will, which is made known in His commandments; the latter in His providential will, which regulates all our affairs. And the more we perform the former - the easier shall we find it to accept and conform our hearts unto the latter.

Christian submission is, therefore, a twofold thing; or rather, it has respect to two aspects of our duty and has to do with two different relationships which God sustains to us - as our King and our Provider.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)