SIfp JPallf into THE WILL OF GOD By Edwin M. Poteat Interchurch World Movement OF North America 45 WEST 18th street. NEW YORK CITY Pric?, 2 cents each, 20 cents per dozen; $1.50 per hundred By Edwin M. Poteat O UR LORD saw all life afloat in the will of God as in a shining haze — flowers, birds, men, every- thing. “Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father.” Paul, in Romans 12:1,2, exhorts us “Be ye transformed,” and the reason for the exhortation is that we may “know the perfect will of God.” The will of God is the law of the world. To change the figure, it is the pole star of the Universe. The great dipper of the northern sky revolves through an enormous cycle and its center is the North Star. OUR GREAT EXAMPLE Our personal task is to know the will of God and to pivot our wills in His will. When we are so pivoted, life swings in perfect harmony with the total order of the universe. Can we find the path into the will of God? Yes! and in nothing is our Lord Jesus more helpfully our great Exemplar than here. He found the path into the heart of the will of God and He made that secret place His home. “I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:29). 4 The Path Into the Will of God Already in His boyhood He is clearly aware of a peculiar relation to his father. WhenHis mother reproached Him, after three anguished days of searching for Him and finding Him in the temple, He answered and almost reproached her anxiety with the words, “Why did ye seek me? Did ye not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2; 49). And counting this as one, we can mark four stages of His progress into the will of God. The second would be the struggle in the wilderness just following the great illumination at His baptism (Matthew 4:1-11). Here He thought through the principles on which He would live His life : He would neither work for self, nor fanatically trust God to work for Him, nor would He compromise by scheming with the devil and the worldly powers in establishing His kingdom. The third stage was when Peter, afraid of the issue, tries to dissuade Him from going forward along the path He had chosen (Matthew 16:21-26). And the fourth when, leaving eight men at the entrance and three men a little further along within the Garden, He plunged alone into the engulfing sorrows of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46). We find here the secret of the majestic calm which He bore through all the farce of His trial and through all the grue- The Path Into the WaL of God 5 some and bitter details of the crucifixion. For to be in the will of God is to be in the place of safety, and of peace, and of power. THREE STEPS OF PROGRESS Now let us note the steps of our pro- gress into the will of God. There is first our initial discovery that so long as we ignored or rebelled against the will of God we were like the restless waves of the sea. In this period we often de- ceived ourselves and tried to say that we were having a good time, but knew no peace with God and accordingly no peace with ourselves. There is no peace out- side the will of God. Our second step was in the acknowl- edgment of our restlessness and our commitment of ourselves by faith to Christ. Conversion means turning round, and when once we abandon the attitude of ignoring or rebelling against the will of God and turning to Christ in acknowledgment of Him as our Saviour and Guide, we have entered on the path which leads straight to our home in the will of God. For here we yield our first assent to His will. “This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” (John 6:29). This assent through belief is made in a general way only, for we do not yet know what His will for us is. This is no reason for being afraid. When we went to school we as- 6 The Path Into the Wh-l of God sented to a process called education, but we did not know all that process involved. Yet the alphabet and the multiplication table imply the farthest imaginable exten- sion of the education process. In like manner our assent to the will of God by faith in Christ implies the utmost reach of our experience of the will and work of God. Third. Alas, for some Christian life stops short at this first stage. The light grows dim, the lines fade, the relation to God loses its fervor and religion loses its power. But we are not of those who draw back. And the third step in our progress is consent to the will of God as it is progressively revealed to us. Our life question is not “What shall I do?”, where self-interest may be the spring of action, but “What is God’s will for me?”, and when conscientiousness gives place to consecration (See Paul — “I thought I ought” and “What shall I do Lord” — Acts 26:9, and 22:10), our whole body is full of light (Matthew 6:22). SAYING YES TO GOD Resistance blinds the eye of knowledge. Consent opens the eye of knowledge and it is to consenting minds that God will make known His will. This is what is given to the obedient. Never say “No” to God. Say “No” and Christian progress stops on the instant. Say The Path Into the Will of God 7 “Yes” and the road opens to widening prospects and larger service. A law student in Yale was deeply immersed in the study of political science when God spoke to his heart. He called upon his pastor and confessed his distress of mind. The pastor said, “If this means that you are fighting against God, I advise you to surrender.” Two days afterward he came again to the pastor radiantly happy because he had found victory through surrender. Political ambitions were abandoned and the “would-be law- yer” became a flaming evangelist. Wil- liam Carey said Y'es w^hcn God made known His will that he should go to India. But his wife said “No,” and a sharp conflict of wills developed. Carey entered upon his voyage alone, but was however detained for two or three weeks and in the meantime Mrs. Carey also said “Yes.” All their subsequent career was bound up in that instance of consent to the revealed will of God. We may give assent to a will not known, saying in gen- eral, “Thy will be done.” We go for- ward only as we consent to the specific will made known as we go forward. Fourth. Those who do the will they know, are in the way of knowing all the will of God and here we pass into the last stage and slip into our final home-— 8 The Path Into the Will of God the heart of the will of God — the place of safety, and of peace, and of power (Col. 4:12 — “fully assured in all the will of God.”) THREE SUGGESTIONS Two or three suggestions: First, make up your mind that the will of God is the absolute best for you. Reaffirm it as the law of your life in the fuller knowledge that you have now gained. Second. Go forward. One little step forward will do two things. It will check the backward drag of your life and it will hold you in the right direction. I say only a little step will do this, like daily Bible reading, stated prayer, little acts of self-denial, etc., etc. Don’t be afraid. It is our Father’s will. If it leads through cavernous depths and engulfing sorrows, its goal is the dazzling summits. The transfiguration of life lies a little further along the road of the crucifixion of self-will and full consent to the will of God. By the thorn road and none other, Is the mount of vision won ; Tread it without shrinking. Brother; Jesus trod it, press thou on! No. 263 LW. Ill 100 Jan. 1920