In Order For His Plan To Work...Man Must Listen

In Order For His Plan To Work…Man Must Listen by Cecil Rose for The Oxford Group

The results in other spheres of life are equally remarkable. An author recently told me that, following his decision to give his life to God, he found that he was doing twice the work in half the time. Now his ‘reader’ says that he must re-write five chapters written before his surrender, in order to bring them up to the level of those written since.

This is another of the truths we are needing to lay hold on afresh. The last generation relied on the adequacy of human reason. Even religious people talked as though reason was itself the voice of God. For the present generation that claim has been disproved by growing chaos. The Bible knows nothing of the adequacy of man’s unaided reason. Our judgment is distorted. Our reasoning is very often only an elaborate means of justifying what we want to do; our decisions are dictated by fear, prejudice, feeling, and our disguised lusts. And none of us can we. the issues involved in our simplest act. If we are to fit into God’s plan for us, we again and again to take steps for which it impossible at the time to see the real reasons. can only hope to live a life fully effective, possessing a real sense of security and peace, if truth that ‘God speaks’ can be tested and f true by us.

What if we can prove by experiment that God has plan for European relations, for the coal industry, for unemployment, and that statesmen, industrialists, social workers can get in touch with Him and learn it? What if He has a plan for my home, for my children’s education, for my business, for my future? Then, not only is there the chance that I and a lot of people like me will find the solution of our difficulties and troubles, but there is a chance that God, through lives more fully under His con will be able to build up the kind of world-order He wants. God has a plan. God speaks.

But if He is to be heard and His plan is to be known and carried out, man must listen.

That means a new approach to God for many of us. Our attitude when we have prayed has been, `Listen, Lord, for Thy servant speaketh.’ Our prayer has been what Canon Streeter classifies as `pagan’ prayer-the attempt to bend God to our desires and make Him the servant of our needs. We have made our plans and decisions first, and then sought God’s blessing and assistance. Prayer, when it consists of this one-sided address by us to God, becomes increasingly unreal and is eventually dropped or only formally retained. Christian prayer begins with the desire to know God’s will for us and be brought under His control. The promise that our petitions will be answered is only to those who have first placed themselves in line with His will. If God is to become for us the living, active God, at work directing our life and the world’s, it is vital that we should learn how to listen. There is one condition to be fulfilled before we begin. We must be willing to hear anything God says to us. It is useless to seek His guidance in one area of life when we are not prepared for Him to talk to us about a certain other area with which He needs to deal first. If we want guidance about our family, we may have to listen to some things God has to tell us about ourselves, our character and habits. If it is personal problems, worries, or health for which we need direction, we may have to face what God has to say about the way we run our business, or about our attitude to money. It is all or nothing. Before you begin to listen to God, you must get rid of any known reservations.