Short Thoughts

As children, mathematics is one area where we begin to grapple with the concept of infinity. Negative numbers add a completely new dimension to our world and we realize that numbers go on without end in all directions. It is amazing what little minds can do with that.

I had already been introduced to the infinite before I ever encountered it in academic textbooks. I was taught from birth about the eternal God—He Who has no beginning and no end. Isaiah said that God inhabits, or dwells in, eternity (Isaiah 57:15). I cannot say that I am any closer to comprehending this today than I was in my youth, but this is what is revealed to us by God in His Word.

Being infinite, God has all knowledge. So, there is no new knowledge possible for God. He knows everything about everything. It is not as though there is some scenario that He has not pondered. It is not as though He could find out something that would change His mind. Well did the Apostle ask, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counseller?” (Romans 11:34). I recall hearing preachers ask, “Did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurs to God?” While perhaps trite, that statement is nonetheless true.

Man, on the other hand, is a finite being. His knowledge is measured and limited. For this reason, he has the capacity to learn and grow. Obviously, the finite can never fully grasp the infinite. Let us ponder for a moment some of the consequences of finite knowledge.

Finiteness means that no man knows everything. We could further clarify that no man knows everything about anything. Not even in one subject can any man claim full knowledge (not truthfully anyway). One consequence of this is that there are different levels of knowledge—one man may know more than another in a particular area. One may know next to nothing in a discipline and another possess a large body of knowledge in that field.

Another consequence is that our minds are not closed, so to speak. We do not know everything about anything and new information is possible. New information can expand our understanding and even change our opinion. I am using ‘new’ as a relative term. There is ultimately no new knowledge to the infinite God, but there may be new knowledge to us.

Another consequence is that we must trust God. Some have supposed that we should test the various religions, experiment with the diverse ways, and choose the best for us. This is an impossible task given the multiplicity of religions and ways. We could only ever gain a limited knowledge of a limited number of religions and we could never actually be certain that we have found the best one. However, God reveals to us not only the best way, but the only way (John 14:6). We must believe and follow the bare Word of God. This is demonstrated in the life of Abraham. When God called Abram out of Ur, He told him to go to a land that would be shown to him. Abram obeyed and went, not knowing where he was going. He trusted and acted upon the bare Word of God without personally possessing all knowledge and that is faith (Hebrews 11:8).

Finally, finiteness for the Christian means humility. Let us not equate humility with vacillating. There is a great difference between saying no one knows everything and saying that no one can know anything. The all-knowing God speaks the Word of Truth and we can have complete confidence in what He has spoken. Humility keeps a proper perspective of our humanity and humility sits at the feet of a teacher to be instructed. Humility knows it is wisdom to know that we do not know as much as knowing what we do know.

“And he spake a parable unto them to this end,
that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”
~ Luke 18:1

In His ministry, Christ taught the disciples how to pray and that they ought to pray. It is positively taught and understood that the children of God are to pray. Jesus instructed the disciples saying, “When ye pray.” It is written that “praying always” is a mark of those that overcome. Jesus said, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).

Christians who do not pray and Christians who will not pray are hardly worthy to bear the title. Rolfe Barnard once said that if God sentenced most Christians to pray for five minutes, they would be miserable and go crazy. They would not be able to do it. After about a minute, they would lose their mind to think about the corn crop, their bank notes, or some other thing. It is not only our obligation to pray, it is also our privilege and opportunity to pray. Let us now meditate upon prayer.

Jesus preached, “That men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” We see from His own prayers, that Christ took praying seriously. He poured out His heart unto the Father. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). In telling his disciples “to pray, and not to faint”, He intends intense persistent prayer. It is not the mumbling of a few ritualistic words in the general direction of Heaven that avails much. It is “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” that “availeth much” (James 5:16).

Effectual fervent prayer is an intense exchange with God. This sort of prayer engages the whole man. You cannot pour out your heart and be pondering the condition of the stock exchange. You cannot pour out your heart to God while wondering what the ballgame score is. You must be involved in prayer. Once before prayer, Jesus said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:34). He went to the Father with a burden. He had nothing short of communion with God in mind when He prayed. Once on the mount, His prayer grew so intense that He began to shine with radiant light. He came so close to God in communion that the glory of the Father swept over Him and the disciples were amazed.

I long for those hours of prayer when my heart grows hot within me. I long for the times when I become so engaged in fellowship with my Lord that I begin to feel the wind of the heavenly world blow upon me. I desire to pray and for my soul to be ravished and caught up in rapturous glory. I then cry aloud like the Psalmist that said, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). Oh, how easy prayer comes at these times. Almost without effort, we pour out our hearts to Him in the morning, at noon, and at night. Praise God! I sing with John Newton:

His name yields the richest perfume, And sweeter than music His voice;
His presence disperses my gloom, And makes all within me rejoice:
I should, were He always thus nigh, Have nothing to wish or to fear;
No mortal so happy as I; My summer would last all the year.

He also purposed to teach that in prayer, men are “not to faint.” You may say, “I have never had the kind of experience, that you described, when I pray.” You need to heed the words of Christ “not to faint.” There is a persistence required in prayer if we are to secure the blessings of it. We must be like Jacob who wrestled with God and said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26). We must be like Daniel who said, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). We must “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16). We must be like a spiritual Samson that will uproot the very gates of Heaven rather than be denied an entrance.

If you are a child of God, “ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). You have a right to call on God. You have a right to cast “all your care upon Him.” This right is not because of anything that we are or that we have done it is because of Jesus Christ who came “To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:5). He is our righteousness! He is our advocate! He is our reason! Have faith in the finished work of Christ and pray to God. Do not rest until you have laid hold of Heaven through prayer. Not all Christians have this sort of fellowship with God, but do not be satisfied without it.

Though prayer is not natural to us, it is a discipline in which we should be much practiced. Let us never fail through want of prayer. There may be many reasons that we do not accomplish what we set out to do, but may our enterprise never languish for want of prayer. Additionally, we may run out of time for many things in a day. I hope that never shall the sun rise or set but what I have been much engaged with my Lord in prayer. Christian, seek His face continually and lay hold of the riches we have in Christ Jesus.

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool:
but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
~ Proverbs 28:26

Certainly, a uniquely wise man, like Solomon, is qualified to identify a fool. In the verse before us, he calls such a one as trusts in his own heart, a fool. The Hebrew word batach, here rendered “trusteth,” means “to be reliant, trust, be unsuspecting.” The word implies a great confidence even to the point of blind trust. It seems to have the sense of being careless or thoughtless. The idea is of one who without question follows the tendency of his own heart. Maybe you could say, “He flies by the seat of his pants.” You might also say of one, “He follows his gut instinct.” Either way, he follows his own instincts without deliberation or contemplation of the Word of God. He lives a carefree, spontaneous life. However, this man is a fool. “The prudent man looketh well to his going” (Proverbs 14:15). Let us now consider this great folly.

In the first place, the heart is not a good guide. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The heart of a saved man, while he continues on this earth, has not been glorified. He still has the flesh with which to contend. We should never look within ourselves for guidance. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23).

Only God knows the depth of depravity to which the human heart can descend. The flesh is still sinful and therefore cannot be trusted. Paul said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). The flesh is to be mortified not trusted. The blessed man of God “walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,” even if that counsel issues from his own heart.

Secondly, our emotions are bound up in our hearts. I fear that far too many Christians live according to their feelings. I had a conversation once with a certain saved woman. We were in disagreement about a subject. I quoted plain scriptures. She responded with, “I understand that, but I feel… Yes, but I feel… Well, I feel… etc.” If we base the interpretation of scripture upon our feelings, we have a very fluid theology that more resembles the shifting sands than the solid rock that Christ claimed wise servants to be building upon.

Christianity does not preclude all emotions, but it is not founded upon our feelings. A saved man that is sick does not feel very good. Does this mean his religion is vain? In the mind of some charismatic heretic, maybe it is, but not according to God’s Word. True religion is based solely upon “Thus saith the Lord,” and not our feelings. Our emotions swell and rescind like the tides, but God’s Word is forever settled in Heaven. How I feel does not change God or His Word in the least. Lazarus did not feel very good laying at the gate, competing with stray dogs for dinner, yet “now he is comforted,” and that rich man that felt so good faring sumptuously every day is “tormented.”

In the last place, we see the man that walks wisely. Our verse says, “But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.” The fool trusted his own heart and the wise man placed his trust elsewhere. He heeds the admonition found in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” He forsakes the dubious counsel of his heart for the “sure word of prophecy.” “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). He looks well to his own goings. He considers his path in the light of God’s Word. He declares confidently, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). It is not his intelligence, experience, reason, or feelings that he depends on, but rather the infallible “counsel of God.”

The wise man walks “not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). In regeneration, we receive the Spirit, the divine principle of life within us. To walk after the Spirit, we must deny the lusts of the flesh. If we are walking satisfying the flesh, we are not walking after the Spirit. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

The wise man will not trust his flesh to be his guide. Neither will he glory in the flesh if he walks a path that is right. He well ascribes all the glory to God knowing, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13). Let us put our full trust in Christ and sing the old song.

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise, Just to know “Thus saith the Lord.”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!