Here I get the whole course of every day life. There are constantly difficulties that I find in passing through this world. I say, Ought I to do this thing or that, or not? I am uncertain as to the right course, or I may find great hindrances to doing what I think to be right. Now if ever I find myself in doubt, my eye is not single; my whole body is not full of light, therefore my eye is not single. God brings me into certain circumstances of difficulty until I detect this. It may be something that I never suspected in myself before, which hinders me from seeing aright; but it is something between me and Christ; and until that is put away, I shall never have certainty as to my path. Therefore He says, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
This would settle 999 cases of difficulty out of 1000. If you are questioning whether you shall do a thing or not, just ask yourself, Am I going to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus? It will settle it at once.
Thus if a person says, What harm is there in my doing such-and-such a thing? I ask, Are you going to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus? Perhaps it will be something of which you will answer at once, Of course not. Then it is settled at once. It is the test of the state of the heart. If my eye is single, if the purpose of my heart is right, I get here what settles every question; it tests my heart. I wanted to know the right path, and it is as simple as A B C. If my heart is not upon Christ, I shall endeavor to do my own will; and that is not God’s will. There is the constant uniform rule which clearly judges every path and circumstance: Am I simply doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus?
But what do I find with it?
“Giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” In another place it is said, “In everything give thanks.”
Where my heart can take Christ with me, my mind is on God, and I can say, He is with me, even if it is tribulation. I have the path of God, I have Christ with me in my path; and I would rather be there, than in what is apparently the fairest and pleasantest thing in the world; as it is said in Psalms 84,
“In whose heart are the ways of them.”