We Have No Wisdom To Know What Is Best For Ourselves.

If we were directing 

the affairs of our own lives!
(J.R. Miller, "The Lesson of Love" 1903)

We often think we could do better--

if we were directing the affairs 

of our own lives.  We think we 

could get more happiness and 

greater good out of life--

if things were in our hands.

We would at once eliminate all that 

is painful and unpleasant in our lot. 
We would have only prosperities, 

with no adversities; only joys, 

with no sorrows.

We would exclude all pain 

and trouble from our life.

Our days would all be 

sunny, with blue skies--

and no clouds or storms.

Our paths would all be soft and 

easy, and strewn with flowers--

without thorns or any rough places.

Would we not be happier--

if we could direct our own affairs, 

and leave out the painful, the bitter, 

the adverse, and the sorrowful?

So most of us would probably say 

at first, before we have thought 

of the question deeply and looked 

on to the end. But really the greatest 

misfortune that could come to us 

in this world--

would be to have the direction 

of the affairs, and the shaping 

of the experiences of our lives, 

put into our own hands!

We have no wisdom to know 

what is best for ourselves. 

Today is not all of life--

there is a long future, perhaps 

many years in this world, and 

then immortality hereafter. 

What would give us greatest 

pleasure today--

might work us harm in days 

to come. Present gratification 

might cost us untold loss and 

hurt in the future.

We want pleasure, plenty, 

and prosperity--

but perhaps we need pain, 

self-denial, and the giving up 

of things that we greatly prize.

We shrink from suffering, 

from sacrifice, from struggle--

but perhaps these are the very 

experiences which will do the most 

good for us, which will best mature 

our Christian graces, which will fit us 

for the largest service to GOD and man.

We should always remember that 

the object of living in this present 

world, is not merely . . .
  to have unlimited pleasure and comfort,
  to get along with the least trouble,
  to gather the most we can 

       of the world's treasures,
  to win the brightest fame.

We are here to grow into the beauty 

of CHRIST, and to do the portion 

of GOD'S will that belongs to us!

There is something wonderfully inspiring 

in the thought, that GOD has a plan and 

a purpose for our lives, for each life. 

We do not come drifting into this world--

and do not drift through it like waves 

on the ocean. We are sent from GOD, 

each one of us with a divine plan for his life--

something GOD wants us to do, some 

place HE wants us to fill. 

All through our lives, we are 

in the hands of GO, who chooses our 

place and orders our circumstances, 

and makes all things work together 

for our good--and HIS glory. 

It is the highest honor that could 

be conferred upon us, to occupy 

such a place in the thought of GOD. 

We cannot doubt that HIS way 

for us is better than ours--

since HE is infinitely wiser than we are, 

and loves us so. It may be painful and hard--

but in the pain and the hardness, 

there is blessing.

Of course we may not know all the reasons 

there are in the divine mind, for the pains 

and sufferings that come into our lives, 

or what GOD'S design for us in these 

trials is. Yet without discovering any 

reasons at all, however, we may still trust 

GOD, who loves us with an infinite love--

and whose wisdom also is infinite!

When we get to heaven, we shall 

know that GOD has made no 

mistake in anything HE has done 

for us, however HE may have 

broken into our plans--

and spoiled our pleasant dreams!

It should be reason for measureless 

gratitude, that our lives are not in our 

own poor foolish hands--

but in the hands of our infinitely 

wise and loving FATHER!

"My times are in YOUR hands!" 
Psalm 31:15 

  
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GraceGems has just published Archibald Brown's superb sermon, 
"Songs in the Night!"