Submission to the Will of the Lord II

"I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine that...had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or, at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences; if we could do so likewise, we should be perfectly of his mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that he will manage for us, whether we are pleased with his management or not; and it is spoken of as one of his heaviest judgements, when he gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts...

Indeed, we may admire his patience toward us. If we were blind, and reduced to desire a person to lead us, and should at every step pretend to dispute with him and direct him at every step, we should soon weary him, and provoke him to leave us to find the way by ourselves if we could. But our gracious Lord is longsuffering and full of compassion...he will take methods to humble us, and to bring us to a confession that he is wiser than we. The great and unexpected benefit he intends us...is to tread down our wills and bring them in subjection to his. So far as we attain to this, we are out of the reach of disappointment; for when the will of God can please us, we shall be pleased every day...

O, the happiness of such a life! I have an idea of it; I hope I am aiming at it, but surely I have not attained it. Self is active in my heart, if it does not absolutely reign there. I profess to believe that one thing is needful and sufficient, and yet my thoughts are prone to wander after a hundred more. If it be true that the light of his countenance is better than life, why am I solicitous about anything else? If the smallest, as well as the greatest events in which I am concerned are under his immediate direction; if the very hairs of my head are numbered; then my care (any farther than a care to walk in the paths of his precepts and to follow the opening of his providence), must be useless and needless, yea indeed sinful and heathenish, burdensome to myself, and dishonourable to my profession.

Let us cast down the load we are unable to carry, and if the Lord be our shepherd, refer all and trust all to him. Let us endeavor to live to him and for him today, and be glad that tomorrow, with all that is behind it, is in his hands." 


From: Letters of John Newton