Matthew 6:19-34; Luke 12:15-34.
[Please to read these Scriptures, before you read what your brother desires to say on them.]
HERE our blessed God and Father speaks to us His dear children, by His Son, concerning our present creature necessities. For though we are now new creatures in Christ Jesus, and children and heirs of God, yet we are still creatures according to the first creation, and have our creature wants.
With what authority, and love, and wisdom, does our Father here speak to us of these matters. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” “Behold the fowls of the air ... Consider the lilies of the field.” “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Is it not plain that our heavenly Father would take on Himself the care of our creature necessities, and have us care for His Kingdom and His righteousness? He would have our hearts fixed on the things that are pure, and purifying, and eternal―things suited to our high and holy calling as new creatures, and as His beloved children and heirs.
Oh! how blessed to have my Father’s kingdom, where His children shall shine as the sun, ever before me; and to be seeking to walk now “as in the day” ―as an obedient child―hungering and thirsting after that righteousness which pleases and honors Him. As the blessed First-born said, “I do always those things that please Him!” To have ever in the heart that prayer― “Our Father; who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven!” Then the pilgrim-child will add― “Give us this day our daily bread!” For this very asking our Father for each day’s supply, tells that we really feel the care of these our needs is with Him. And He delights to be inquired of, to do it for us.
How opposite is all this to the anxious, covetous, world around, out of which His grace has brought us. The Gentiles seek after these earthly things. They are the objects for which they live. They are without God! They walk by sparks of their own kindling! To us the word is― “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” “But ye have not so learned Christ.”
He tells us to trust our Father with all these matters, to be subject to Him about them―for He knows them all, and will not forget to consider and care for them all, though this will be in His own way; and He calls us into fellowship with Himself in His own purposes and counsels, for His own glory by Christ Jesus our Lord.
How blessed is this, beloved in the Lard! How sweet to know that He who spreads open before us His own kingdom of holiness, and peace, and glory, is watching our pilgrim-needs―He who feeds the fowls, and clothes the lilies of the field!
Let this mind be in us, beloved! Let us press along the line for the prim of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Never let us fall under those searching, melting words, in verse 18 and 19 of Phil. 3―to be wept over as those “who mind earthly things.” Rather let us follow him who could say, “This one thing I do,” (vs. 13,) and, “My God shall supply all your need.”
And He does! He cannot fail. See the lilies. See the birds. See all who trust in Him according to His Word.
But there is divine wisdom, as well as holiness and love, in this plan of our blessed Father’s. He would exercise faith, and weaken sense. He would draw out love, and dry up selfishness. He would increase prayer, and silence murmurings. He would cultivate obedience, and mortify self-will. In a word, He would make us like Jesus, and unlike the Gentiles.
Let us admire and ponder His wisdom who thus gives us a pure, unmingled, ever-blessed object, and takes the mixed and complicated one into His own hands. For how are fleshly-lusts and creature-needs confused and mingled together! Food, drink, clothing, a dwelling, furniture, are needs. But the fallen creature has made all these objects for its lusts. Now none but God can supply the needs and teach us to mortify the lusts, and when we seek our supplies at His hand, and wholly according to His will, we shall find Him so dealing with us as both to supply our necessities and to famish our lusts. And as faith worketh by love, so when He bestows more than our own needs require, we feel that we are stewards of His bounty, and we are “ready to distribute.” Yet in this distribution we shall remember still that needs, not lusts, are to be cared for (2 Cor. 8:20, 21).
Now, are we willing, beloved, to put these matters into our Father’s hands? Are we willing to learn of Jesus concerning them? To say―not our will, but Thine be done? Or do we wish some indulgence― “a little one,”―in food―in clothing―in our houses; for our children? If so, we cannot have it of our Father, except it be in judgment. For He may give us our lust, that so we may learn that “he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.”
There is one indeed ever waiting on us to serve, not our needs, but our lusts. There is a shepherd for the flesh―an “idol shepherd” ―who has “the world” as his storehouse! But shall we traffic with him; or be fed at his hand?
Is it not through our natural necessities that that old serpent, the devil, constantly entices us to paths of self-will, and worldly policy? Let but self-will be set at work in the provision for our real wants, and self-will will soon over step that boundary, and be making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof! All the enemy wants is to get self-will into action. Let him only succeed in this and his victory is won. It may be about real, and even pressing needs―and the way to meet them may be so ready, so easy, so close at hand. And if the heart be not upward waiting for the Father’s word―weighing the suggested plan, or step, in His presence-we shall surely be ensnared. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” “They waited not for His counsel.”
See the “Beloved Son” in the wilderness. What was the enemy’s first temptation? Was it not to an independent exercise of His own powers, to provide for His pressing bodily need? But, no! He could hunger, but He could not act without His Father’s word! That word He loved more than His necessary food! He waited only on God! Powers He indeed had―but He would use them only in subjection to His Father! This, beloved, is the excellency of all the excellencies of Jesus. He was obedient! Obedient not unto hunger only, but unto death, even the death of the cross!
Oh! for that Spirit which makes us “of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord!” This is the Spirit of Christ Jesus―the well-beloved Son.
Self-will in the provision for our necessities is then the first snare of our enemy, beloved. Then will follow self-will in the provision for our lusts. And then the tempter spreads the world and its glory before us―a wide field indeed! They only consult to cast us down from our excellency―they delight in lies; they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly (Psa. 62. read it throughout). For, is not our excellency to wait only upon God?
Beloved, let us watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. For our enemy will approach us through very fair and loving instruments. The partner of our bosom, the child of our body, the friend of our youth―the amiable, the moral, the prudent, the wise―may all be used by him. Necessity, duty, advantage, example, the sanction of many a good name, will all be urged, and dark pictures will be drawn of the consequences of refusal. But, “My soul, wait thou only upon God!” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
Even those who are one with us in Christ may not clearly see the Father’s will, and the Beloved Son’s example in this matter, and may even help the enemy; but let us, in childlike meekness and faith, be subject only to God. “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
And in a day of such lawlessness as this, when men, (and, alas! the Church too!) are gone so far into the way of their own heart, what would more surely mark out a “peculiar people” than this simple subjection to the Lord, and prayerful dependence on Him, in all our pilgrim-needs. We should, then, be content with such things as we have; knowing that He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. We should be “without carefulness.” We should not be choked with the cares of this life. Casting aside every weight-instead of multiplying them by unbelieving self-will―we should run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, and, like Him, our hearts would be filled with the joy set before us. The kingdom which cannot be moved―our Father’s kingdom―would be ever before us, and in us; and we should hasten forward to the day of God!
True, our God and Father may exercise our faith and patience. He may keep us waiting for His word, and His supply. And this will give the enemy a time and a place for his acts and his instruments. But His end in this is that patience may have her perfect work―that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. That we may wait, and pray, and watch, and fight, and overcome. That we may grow from “little children” to “young men:” those who are strong, and who have the word of God abiding in us, and who have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2).
Oh! to what rich account may these creature-needs be turned, if only we will listen to our Father’s counsel about them; and sit at the feet, and follow the steps of Jesus, whom He has sent to teach us in His ways!
Let us ponder, then, these precious Scriptures, beloved in Christ. Let us pray to our Father that they may do their proper work in our hearts. And to Him shall be the glory, by Christ Jesus, forever and ever. Amen!