IN THESE DAYS of hurry and pressure, we find ourselves face to face with a terrible danger. It is this: no time to be alone with God. The world is running fast in these last days; we live in what is called "the age of progress." We must keep pace with the times, so the world says. But this spirit has not confined itself to the world only; it is also found among the saints of God. And what is the result? The result is no time to be alone with God, and this is immediately followed by no inclination to be alone with God. And what next? Surely the question does not need an answer. Can there be any condition more deplorable than the condition of a child of God who has no inclination to be alone with his Father?
How many of God's dear children nowadays have picked up the "spirit of the age," and how many Christians are pushed into service for God, or thrust themselves into it, who have had no "apprenticeship" —no desert training. They have taken a terrible shortcut into the front of the battle, for that shortcut has cut off entirely the school of God!
Examples How different this is from what meets our eye in the pages of our Father's Book. If it is Abraham we look at, we find him sweetly communing with his God, far away in the plains of Mamre sitting in his tent door in the heat of the day (Gen. 18:11And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; (Genesis 18:1)). At the same time, his worldly nephew is keeping pace with the "spirit of the age" in ungodly Sodom.
If it is David we look at, the wilderness for him is the school of God. There he slays the lion and the bear (1 Sam. 17:34-3634And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: 35And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 36Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. (1 Samuel 17:34‑36)), when no human eye was near. He gets the victory alone with God. Fresh from God's school he steps before the thousands of Israel, and while all Israel fearfully follows Saul, the people's man, he is one who does not. He is the one who has been at God's school in the wilderness alone with Him. Surely it is no wonder, then, that the Lord wrought a great victory in Israel that day!
We might multiply instances from God's Word. We might tell of Elijah, a bold witness for God, who was longer alone with his God than standing in the place of public testimony. He found the solitude of Cherith (1 Kings 17:33Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (1 Kings 17:3)), and the quiet seclusion of Zarephath (v. 9), a needed training before he delivered the messages of God.
We might tell of John the Baptist who was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel (Luke 1:8080And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. (Luke 1:80)). Or we might tell of the great Apostle Paul, whose journey to Arabia seems to have been for no other purpose than to be at God's school in the desert (Gal. 1:1717Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. (Galatians 1:17)). But from the instances we have already pointed out, nothing can be clearer than this, that if you and I are to be of any use to God down here—if we would glorify Him on the earth—we must have time to be alone with Him.
Whoever or whatever is put off, God must not be put off. We must have time, every one of us, to be alone with God. It is in the closet that the "lions" and the "bears" must be slain. It is in the secret presence of God, with no one near but Him, that the spiritual Agags must be brought out and hewn in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal (1 Sam. 15:3333And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. (1 Samuel 15:33)).
God's Work in God's Way
When we appear before our brethren or the world, we shall find ours to be the "strong confidence" which is the portion of all who have to do with God in secret. The "Goliaths" shall be slain—no doubt of that. God's work shall be done—no doubt of that either. We need not fear that God will not use us. It is only by being in God's school that He can use us—not perhaps in the dazzling way that the world and many Christians admire, but in His own way, in a way that shall most honor Him.
The Lord will make all these things clear to us while we are alone with Himself. It is only then we really do God's work; it is only then we do it in God's way, and only then we do the very things God has fitted us for, and at the very time appointed of the Father.
What secrets we get from the Lord when alone with Himself! If we do not care for the secret of His presence, what does He care for all our boasted service? It is ourselves He wants, and it is only service flowing out of the joy of His presence that is worthy of the name. It is only such service that shall stand the fire of the judgment seat, and bring joy that we have not run in vain, nor labored in vain in the day of Christ.
May each one of us have an open ear to the Master's voice when He says to us, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place," remembering that though He were the Son of the Father, we find Him time after time departing into a solitary place, and there praying, although in doing so, He had to get up a great while before day. The faithful witness Himself, as well as His faithful and trusted servants in every age, required a desert experience-a wilderness teaching-alone with God. And so do we.
W. Shaw