Some Thoughts on Devotedness

In a day of confusion, opposition, and difficulty, it is of the utmost importance to learn who
succeeds. Who is the one to surmount the various and accumulating obstructions in the Christian’s
path? I believe the true answer is the devoted one; and I mean by devotedness the purpose to
follow the Lord at any cost, so that the one thing before the heart is the intent in every way to set
forth the name and honor of the Lord.

If I follow the Lord, I cannot go but where He has gone, and this is obedience in its simplest and
truest order. Hence He says, "If any man love Me he will keep My commandments." How could
you tell where His path lay without the Word? Therefore, the one following must be governed by
the Word. The Word is, if I may so express myself, the scent which assures the spiritual soul that
he is on the right track. The one thought of devotedness is, "Where thou go-est, I will go" Hence,
in any difficulty, the one simple inquiry is "Which way went the Lord?" And surely if lam in His
way I must succeed. The way of the Lord, in which the Word directs me, is one always at first
arduous and apparently impossible. It is a path which the keenest natural eye cannot detect, and
it is one that is so superhuman in its character that the power of Christ alone can uphold us in it.
But once I am in it, on the scent, I am like Peter on the water_surprised and entranced at the
wonders His grace can effect for me_and I have the sense that I am in His path.

A Nazarite (Num. 6) was the figurative representation of a thoroughly devoted soul. The true
Nazarite scrupulously adhered to the terms of his-vow. Samson, who was a Nazarite, illustrates
how devotedness succeeds, but also what failure there is in departure from it. As long as he was
true to this rigid separation he was singularly successful; when he diverged from it his failure was
most marked.

Samuel, in contrast to Samson, had his heart filled with the Lord. He followed the Lord and
depended only on Him; and he succeeded in a surpassing degree beyond Samson. In adhering to
strict rule and order there is often success, but then it is more of the conscience than the heart; and
hence, as it was with Samson, when the allurement for his heart was strong enough, he declined
from the true course. But true devotedness finds its delight in following the Lord, just as did
Joshua and Caleb in another day. Their comfort and stay was in the fact that "if the Lord delight
in us, then He will bring us into this land" (Num. 14:8). Devotedness is not overborne by numbers
any more than by the prospect of danger. Devotedness follows the Lord wholly. What difficulties
would be overcome in this day, what questions solved, if there were more devotedness_ that
simplicity of eye that cannot be diverted from the one object, Christ alone.

(From A Voice to the Faithful, Vol. 14.)