LOOKING UPWARD

(extract from John Berridge)

Pray frequently, and wait quietly, and the Lord will make your way plain. Jesus trains up all his servants to waiting; and if you are called to the Ministry, He will exercise your soul beforehand with sharp conflicts.

Joseph must be cast first into a pit by his own brethren, then into a prison by his master, before he rules the kingdom; and David must be hunted as a flea upon the mountains before he gets the sceptre. How can you tell what others feel, unless you have felt the same yourself?

How can you sympathise with a prisoner, unless your own feet have been fast in the stocks? How can you comfort those who are cast down unless you have been often at your wit’s end?

Expect nothing but conflicts day after day, to humble and prove you, and teach you to speak a word in season to every one that is weary. This is, indeed, the high road to the kingdom for all; yet a minister’s path is now only narrow and stony, like others’, but covered also with bushes and brakes; and if you labour to remove them by your own hands, they will quickly tear your flesh, and fill your fingers with thorns.

Let your master remove them at your request; and remember it is always his work, as it is ever his delight, to clear our way and lead us on, till sin and death are trodden down.

Undertake nothing without first seeking direction from the Lord; and when anything offers that is plausible and inviting, beg of God to disappoint you, if it be not according to his mind. You cannot safely rely on your own judgment, after God has told you, ‘He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool’. This advice relates to all important changes in life.

Go nowhere, settle nowhere, marry nowhere without frequent usage of this prayer.

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