"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God.” Romans 8:14
Thus it is not I who am “master of my fate”, not I who am “captain
of my soul”. It is Some One else—Some One
stronger, wiser, better by far. I would
be led by the Spirit of God. For this is
a tutelage and servitude more productive of good than any freedom which the
world knows. He is the noblest Guide,
and who is so greatly to be envied as His pupil and follower, walking humbly
where He points?
My thoughts – let the Spirit lead them. Then they will not be surrendered to what is
trivial, misleading, or sinful. The
largest and the holiest themes will enlist my mind: God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, my
soul with its powers and its needs, salvation, and eternity. I shall engage in no study on which I cannot
ask my Teacher’s blessing, and in which I may not rely on His help. Especially I will beseech, and expect, and
receive His illumination when the Book of books is open before me. His glory will “guild the sacred pages,
resplendent like the sun”.
My affections—let the Spirit lead them. Then, while all that is fair and inviting in
nature and art and human comradeship will have its legitimate place and its
constraining and controlling influence, heaven will loom largest and God will
be foremost. I would have the lower
attachments and tendernesses purged and hallowed by this diviner Love. They enrich me more than I can say, and I am
thankful for every one of them; but it appeases my hunger and purifies my life
as the best of them cannot do. Yielding
to it, I shall carry in me a satisfied heart, and I shall be a spring of
strength and grace to many another soul.
My activities—let the Spirit lead them. Then I shall be up and doing. Morning after morning I shall hear Him call
me to my duties for the Master, and for the world over which the Master
yearns. Day after day He will empower me
with a might which is not my own, and my labor will not be in vain in the
Lord. Evening after evening I shall
subject myself to His scrutiny and wait for His verdict on what I have
done. He will be the Fountain of my
strength, the Standard of my aspiration, and the Judge of my works. And this is the life that pleases God and
that benefits men.
My hopes—let the Spirit lead them. Then consciously, rejoicingly, victoriously,
I shall be stepping westward, away from the glooms behind, through a region
bright, towards a heavenly destiny—not a sunset, but a sunrise. The sky in front will be aglow with wonderful
color, and I shall see the Holy City descending from God. In it, as the Indwelling Comforter whispers,
there is a place prepared by my Lord for me.
In it, He tells me, the disabilities of the present will be gone, and
shall have passed from anticipation and prayer to fulfillment. And is it not the best of prophecies and promises?
He is well led whom the Spirit leads.
--treasured from In the Secret Place, Alexander Smellie
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