A Divine Perspective
THE ACQUIESCENCE OF PURE LOVE.
I watch my hours and see them fleet away,
The time is long that I have languish’d here;
Yet all my thoughts thy purposes obey,
With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.
To me ‘tis equal, whether love ordained,
My life or death, appoint me pain or ease;
My soul perceives no real ill pain,
In ease or health, no real good she sees.
One good she covets, and that good alone,
To choose thy will, from selfish bias free,
And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
And grief to comfort, if it pleases thee.
That we should bear the cross is thy command,
Die to the world, and live to self no more;
Suffer, unmoved, beneath the rudest hand,
As pleased when shipwrecked, as when safe on shore.
– William Cowper
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Ah! if you have a self-will in your hearts, pray to God to uproot it. Have you self-love? Beseech the Holy Spirit to turn it out; for if you will always will to do as God wills, you must be happy. I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little wafer, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, "What! all this, and Christ too?" It is "all this," compared with what we deserve. And I have read of some one dying, who was asked if he wished to live or die; and he said, "I have no wish at all about it." "But if you might wish, which would you choose?" "I would not choose at all." "But if God bade you choose?" "I would beg God to choose for me, for I should not know which to take." Happy state! happy state! to be perfectly acquiescent—
To lie passive in his hand,
And to know no will but his.
– “The Peculiar Sleep of the Beloved” - The New Park Street Pulpit Vol I pg. 89 (C.H. Spurgeon)
O, beloved! That divinely cherished perspective of God’s perfect will - aye? Oh, how trustworthy, how good, how lovely is He?!
Not only do we receive His blessed providence - all the intricacies of His willed circumstances - whatever they may be; but we are graced with Himself: Love.
And so, what say you, beloved? What position will you hold? Will you carelessly balance your affections alongside an everchanging turbulence of time? Will you let your feelings ebb and flow while pros and cons press in?
O, my soul. Listen. Come now. We have been gifted a free will, have we not? We have something of which we take so very lightly, and yet, it is no insignificant matter.
We have a choice: we can govern our devotion, we can carefully weigh our lot; we can try and judge for ourselves, whether or not that which has been bestowed upon us is for our good.
Or, we can, with reckless abandon, realize our dim-witted nature, rest in His sovereign grace, and gladly, unreservedly, passionately, unrelentingly, submit ourselves to His tender lovingkindness.
Ah! That’s better.
Let us take our free will, perhaps the only thing we “own”; let us offer it up as our expression of love. Let us turn our affection towards Him, the only One truly worthy of our praise. And, let us, with the help of His Spirit, shape our perspective accordingly.
May His will be done, now and always.