In these days of hurry and bustle,
we find ourselves face to face with a terrible danger—no time to be alone with
God. The world in these last days is running fast; we live in what is called
"the age of progress." "You know we must keep pace with the
times," so the world says. [Ed. note:This was written 95 years ago!] But
this spirit of the world has not confined itself to the world. It is, alas, to
be found among the saints of God. And what is the result? No time to be alone
with God. And this is followed by no inclination to be alone with God.
Can there be any condition more deplorable than the condition of a child of God
who has no inclination to be alone with his Father?
Nowadays how many of God’s dear
children have picked up the "spirit of the age"; and how many
Christians are pushed into service for God, or thrust themselves into it, who
have had no "apprenticeship," no desert training. They have taken a
terrible short-cut into the front of the battle, a short-cut that has cut off
entirely the school of God!
How different is this from what
meets our eye in the pages of our Father’s Book. If we look at Abraham, we find
him sweetly communing with his God, far away in the plains of Mamre, sitting in
his tent door in the heat of the day (Gen. 18:1), while his worldly nephew is
keeping pace with the spirit of the age in ungodly Sodom. We find Joseph at
least two full years in God’s school—although it be an Egyptian dungeon—before
he steps up to teach her "senators wisdom" (Psa. 105:22) and
"save much people alive" (Gen. 50:20).
We find Moses at God’s school in
the back side of the desert (Exod. 3:1). Then, but not till then, he appears
publicly as the deliverer of the people of God. For David also the wilderness
is the school of God. There he slays the lion and the bear (1 Sam. 17:34-36)
when no human eye is near. He gets the victory alone with God. Fresh from God’s
school, he steps before the thousands of Israel; and while all Israel follows
Saul, the people’s man, trembling, there is one who trembles not, and he is the
one who has been at God’s school in the wilderness alone with Himself. Little
wonder, then, that the Lord wrought a great victory in Israel that day!
We might multiply instances from
the Book of God. We might tell of Elijah, a bold witness for God, who was
longer alone with his God than standing in the place of public testimony. He
found the solitude of Cherith and the quiet seclusion of Zarephath (1 Ki.
17:3,9) a needed training before he delivered the messages of God. John the
Baptist was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel (Luke 1:80).
The apostle Paul’s journey to Arabia seems to have been for no other purpose
than to be at God’s school in the desert (Gal. 1:17). But from the instances we
have noticed, nothing can be clearer than this, that if you and I are to be of
any use to God down here—if we would glorify Him on the earth—we must have time
to be alone with Him.
Whoever or whatever is put off,
God must not be put off. Whether we are "gifted" or not
"gifted," every one of us must have time alone with God. It is in the
closet that the "lions" and the "bears" must be slain. It
is in the secret presence of God, with no one near but Him, that the spiritual
Agags must be brought out and hewn in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal (1 Sam.
15:33). Then, when we appear before our brethren or the world, we shall find
ours to be the "strong confidence" which is the portion of all who
have to do with God in secret. The "Goliaths" shall be slain; God’s
work shall be done. We need not fear that God will not use us. It is only by
being in God’s school that He can use us—not perhaps in the dazzling way that
the world and many Christians admire, but in His own way, in a way that will
most honor Him.
The Lord makes all these things
clear to us while we are alone with Himself. It is only then we really do God’s
work, it is only then we do it in God’s way, it is only then we do the very
things God has fitted us for and at the very time appointed of the Father. What
secrets we get from the Lord alone with Himself! If we do not care for the
secret of His presence, what does He care for all our boasted service! It is
ourselves He wants, and it is only service flowing out of the joy of His
presence that is worthy of the name. It is only such service that shall stand
the fire of the judgment seat, and bring joy in the day of Christ that we have
not run in vain nor labored in vain.
May each one of us have an open
ear to the Master’s voice when He says to us, "Come ye yourselves apart
into a desert place" (Mark 6:31), remembering that though He were the Son
of the Father, we find Him time after time departing "into a solitary
place," and there praying, although in doing so He had to get up a
"great while before day" (Mark 1:35). The faithful witness Himself,
as well as His faithful and trusted servants in every age, required a desert
experience—a wilderness teaching alone with God. Beloved, so do we!