Andrew Murray
III.
Psalms 62: 5.–My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is
from Him.
The solemn question comes to us, “Is the God I have, a God that is to
me above all circumstances, nearer to me than any circumstance can be?”
Brother, have you learned to live your life having God so really with you
every moment, that in circumstances the most difficult He is always more
present and nearer than anything around you? All our knowledge of God’s
Word will help us very little, unless that comes to be the question to
which we get an answer.
What can be the reason that so many of God’s beloved children complain
continually: “My circumstances separate me from God; my trials, my
temptations, my character, my temper, my friends, my enemies, anything can
come between my God and me?” Is God not able so to take possession that He
can be nearer to me than anything in the world? Must riches or poverty, joy
or sorrow, have a power over me that my God has not? No. But why, then, do
God’s children so often complain that their circumstances separate them
from Him? There can be but one answer, “They do not know their God.” If
there is trouble or feebleness in the Church of God, it is because of this.
We do not know the God we have. That is why in addition to the promise, “I
will be thy God,” the promise is so often added, “And ye shall know that I
am your God.” If I know that, not through man’s teaching, not with my mind
or my imagination; but if I know that, in the living evidence which God
gives in my heart, then I know that the divine presence of my God will be
so wonderful, and my God Himself will be so beautiful, and so near, that I
can live all my days and years a conqueror through Him that loved me. Is
not that the life which we need?
The question comes again: Why is it that God’s people do not know their
God? And the answer is: They take anything rather than God,–ministers, and
preaching, and books, and prayers, and work, and efforts, any exertion of
human nature, instead of waiting, and waiting long if need be, until God
reveals Himself. No teaching that we may get, and no effort that we may put
forth, can put us in possession of this blessed light of God, all in all
to our souls. But still it is attainable, it is within reach, if God will
reveal Himself. That is the one necessity. I would to God that every one
would ask his heart whether he has said, and is saying every day: “I want
more of God. Do not speak to me only of the beautiful truth there is in the
Bible. That can not satisfy me. I want God.” In our inner Christian life,
in our every-day prayers, in our Christian living, in our churches, in our
prayer-meetings, in our fellowship, it must come to that–that God always
has the first place; and if that be given Him, He will take possession. Oh,
if in our lives as individuals every eye were set upon God, upon the living
God, every heart were crying, “My soul thirsteth for God,” what power, what
blessing and what presence of the everlasting God would be revealed to us!
Let me use an illustration. When a man is giving an illustrated lecture
he often uses a long pointer to indicate places on a map or chart. Do the
people look at that pointer? No, that only helps to show them the place on
the map, and they do not think of it,–it might be of fine gold; but the
pointer can not satisfy them. They want to see what the pointer points
at. And this Bible is nothing but a pointer, pointing to God; and,–may I
say it with reverence–Jesus Christ came to point us, to show us the way,
to bring us to God. I am afraid there are many people who love Christ and
who trust in Him, but who fail of the one great object of His work; they
have never learned to understand what the Scripture saith: “He died, that
He might bring us unto God.”
There is a difference between the way and the end which I am aiming at.
I might be traveling amid most beautiful scenery, in the most delightful
company; but if I have a home to which I want to go, all the scenery, and
all the company, and all the beauty and happiness around me can not satisfy
me; I want to reach the end; I want my home. And God is meant to be the
home of our souls. Christ came into the world to bring us back to God, and
unless we take Christ for what God intended we should, our religion will
always be a divided one. What do we read in Hebrews vii? “He is able to
save to the uttermost.”–Whom? “Them that come to God by Him;” not
them that only come to Christ. In Christ–bless His name–we have the
graciousness, the condescension, and the tenderness of God. But we are in
danger of standing there, and being content with that, and Christ wants to
bring us back to rejoice as much as in the glory of God Himself, in His
righteousness, His holiness, His authority, His presence and His power. He
can save completely those who come to God through Him!
Now, just a very few thoughts on the way by which I can come to know God as
this God above all circumstances, filling my heart and life every day. The
one thing needful is: I must wait upon God. The original is,–it is in our
Dutch version, and it is in the margin, too,–“My soul is silent into God.”
What ought to be the silence of the soul unto God? A soul conscious of its
littleness, its ignorance, its prejudices and its dangers from passion,
from all that is human and sinful,–a soul conscious of that, and saying,
“I want the everlasting God to come in and to take hold of me and to take
such hold of me that I may be kept in the hollow of His hand for my life
long; I want Him to take such possession of me that every moment He may
work all in all in me.” That is what is implied in the very nature of our
God. How we ought to be silent unto Him, and wait upon Him!
May I ask, with reverence: What is God for? A God is for this: to be the
light and the life of creation, the source and power of all existence. The
beautiful trees, the green grass, the bright sun, God created that they
might show forth His beauty, His wisdom and His glory. The tree of one
hundred years old–when it was planted God did not give it a stock of life
by which to carry on its existence. Nay, verily, God clothes the lilies
every year afresh with their beauty; every year God clothes the tree with
its foliage and its fruit. Every day and every hour it is God who maintains
the life of all nature. And God created us, that we might be the empty
vessels in which He could work out His beauty, His will, His love, and the
likeness of His blessed Son. That is what God is for, to work in us by His
mighty operation, without one moment’s ceasing. When I begin to get hold of
that, I no longer think of the true Christian life as a high impossibility,
and an unnatural thing, but I say, “It is the most natural thing in
creation that God should have me every moment, and that my God should be
nearer to me than all else.” Just think, for a moment, what folly it is to
imagine that I can not expect God to be with me every moment. Just look at
the sunshine; have you ever had any trouble as you were working or as you
were studying or reading a book in the light the sun gives? Have you ever
said, “Oh, how can I keep that light, how can I hold it fast, how can I be
sure that I shall continue to have it to use?” You never thought that.
God has taken care that the sun itself should provide you with light; and
without your care; the light comes unbidden. And I ask you: What think you?
Has God arranged that the light of that sun that will one day be burned up,
can come to you unconsciously and abide in you blessedly and mightily; and
is God not willing, or is He not able, to let His light and His presence so
shine through you that you can walk all the day with God nearer to you than
anything in nature? Praise God for the assurance; He can do it. And why
does He not do it? Why so seldom, and why in such feeble measure? There is
but one answer: you do not let Him. You are so occupied and filled with
other things, religious things, preaching and praying, studying and
working, so occupied with your religion, that you do not give God the time
to make Himself known, and to enter in and to take possession. Oh, brother,
listen to the word of the man who knew God so well, and begin to say: “My
soul, wait thou only upon God.”
I might show that this is the very glory of the Creator, the very life
Christ brought into the world, the life He lived, and the very life Christ
wants to lift us up to in its entire dependence on the Father. The very
secret of the Christ-life is this: such a consciousness of God’s presence
that whether it was Judas, who came to betray Him, or Caiaphas, who
condemned Him unjustly, or Pilate, who gave Him up to be crucified, the
presence of the Father was upon Him, and within Him, and around Him, and
man could not touch His spirit. And that is what God wants to be to you and
to me. Does not all your anxious restlessness, and futile effort, prove
that you have not let God do His work? God is drawing you to Himself.
This is not your own wish, and the stirring of your own heart, but the
everlasting Divine magnet is drawing you. These restless yearnings and
thirstings, remember, are the work of God. Come and be still, and wait upon
God. He will reveal Himself.
And how am I to wait on God? In answer I would say: first of all, in prayer
take more time to be still before God without saying one word. What is, in
prayer, the most important thing? That I catch the ear of Him to whom I
speak. We are not ready to offer our petition until we are fully conscious
of having secured the attention of God. You tell me you know all that. Yes,
you know it; but you need to have your heart filled by the Holy Spirit with
the holy consciousness that the everlasting, almighty God is indeed come
very near you. The loving one is longing to have you for His own. Be still
before God, and wait, and say: “Oh, God, take possession. Reveal Thyself,
not to my thoughts or imaginations, but by the solemn, awe-bringing,
soul-subduing consciousness that God is shining upon me bring me to the
place of dependence and humility.”
Prayer may be indeed waiting upon God, but there is a great deal of prayer
that is not waiting upon God. Waiting on God is the first and the best
beginning for prayer. When we bow in the humble, silent acknowledgment
of God’s glory and nearness, ere we begin to pray there will be the very
blessing that we often get only at the end. From the very beginning I come
face to face with God; I am in touch with the everlasting omnipotence of
love and I know my God will bless me. Let us never be afraid to be still
before God; we shall then carry that stillness into our work; and when we
go to church on Sunday, or to the prayer-meeting on week-days, it will be
with the one desire that nothing may stand betwixt us and God, and that
we may never be so occupied with hearing and listening as to forget the
presence of God.
Oh, that God might make every minister what Moses was at the foot of Mount
Sinai; “Moses led the people out to meet God,” and they did meet Him until
they were afraid. Let every minister ask with all the earnestness his
soul can command, that God may deliver him from the sin of preaching and
teaching without making the people feel first of all: “The man wants to
bring us to God Himself.” It can be felt, not only in the words, but in the
very disposition of the humble, waiting, worshiping heart. We must carry
this waiting into all our worship; we will have to make a study of it; we
will have to speak about it; we will have to help each other, for the truth
has been too much lost in the Church of Christ; we must wait upon God about
it. Then we shall be able to carry it out into our daily life. There are so
many Christians who wonder that they fail; but think of the ease with which
they talk and join in conversation, spending hours in it, never thinking
that all this may be dissipating the soul’s power and leading them to spend
hours not in the immediate presence of God. I am afraid this is the great
difficulty: that we are not willing to make the needed sacrifice for a life
of continual waiting upon God. Are there not some of us who would feel it
an impossibility to spend every moment under the covering of the Most High,
“in the secret of His pavilion?” Beloved, do not think it too high, or too
difficult. It is too difficult for you and me to attain, but our God will
give it to us. Let us begin even now to wait more earnestly and intensely
upon God. Let us in our homes sometimes bow a little in silence; let us in
our closets wait in silence, and make a covenant, it may be, without words,
that with our whole hearts we will seek God’s presence to come in upon us.
What is religion? Just as much as you have of God working in you, that
alone is religion. And if you want more religion, more grace, more strength
and more fruitfulness, you must have more of God. Let that be the cry of
our hearts,–More of God! More of God! More of God! And let us say to our
souls, “My soul, wait thou upon God, for my expectation is from Him.”