Magnificent Prayer #283
Magnificent Prayer #283
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:21–22
What some call providential openings, are often powerful temptations. Our wandering heart may cry, “At last, here is a pathway opened before me.” But perhaps that path is one not to be taken, but to be rejected.
JOHN NEWTON
Pray About It: Many of us have made drastic choices because we based a decision on what we thought was God’s leading. Later, to our regret, we learned otherwise. As you pray, watch for providential openings, but don’t assume any opening is providential. Such openings must be consistent with God’s Word and they will usually bear the scrutiny of more mature brothers and sisters who can be more objective. There’s safety in a multitude of counselors. Ask others, read the Word, and wait, before you walk that seemingly right path. It may be one to be rejected.
Here’s the counsel of one of the great pray-ers of all time, George Mueller:
How to Ascertain the Will of God
1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what his will is.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.
6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective.
From the book
