For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:29)
I have a right to ask for anything that God has promised me, but if I go beyond the range of the divine promises, I also go beyond the range of assured and confident expectation.
The promises are very large and very wide, but when one gets a fancy in his head, he must not suppose that God is there, in his fancy. I have known some fanatical persons who thought they could live by faith.
They were going to preach the gospel, having no gifts whatsoever for preaching. They were going to be missionaries in a district, having no more gift to be missionaries than horses in a plow.
But they thought they were destined to do it, and therefore they tried to live by faith, and when they had been nearly half-starved, then they complained against the goodness and abandoned the labor.
Had God really inspired and sent them, he would have sustained and kept them, but if they go about it willfully and stubbornly on their own account they will be driven back to realize their own ignorance of the divine will.
And then oftentimes we pray in a way in which our prayers could not be heard consistent with the dignity of the Most High. I love a holy familiarity with God, and I believe it to be commendable.
But still, man is but man, while God is God, and however familiar we may be with him in our hearts, still we must recollect the distance there is between the Most High and his creation.
Even the most elevated and most beloved of God’s creatures are not to speak as though it were in our power to do as we will and as we please.
I have a right to ask for anything that God has promised me, but if I go beyond the range of the the divine promises, I also go beyond the range of assured and confident expectation.
The promises are very large and very wide, but when one gets a fancy in his head, he must not suppose that God is there, in his fancy. I have known some fanatical persons who thought they could live by faith.
They were going to preach the gospel, having no gifts whatsoever for preaching. They were going to be missionaries in a district, having no more gift to be missionaries than horses in a plow.
But they thought they were destined to do it, and therefore they tried to live by faith, and when they had been nearly half-starved, then they complained against the goodness and abandoned the labor.
Had God really inspired and sent them, he would have sustained and kept them, but if they go about it willfully and stubbornly on their own account they will be driven back to realize their own ignorance of the divine will.
And then oftentimes we pray in a way in whih our prayers could not be heard consistent with the dignity of the Most High. I love a holy familiarity with God, and I believe it to be commendable.
But still, man is but man, while God is God, and however familiar we may be with him in our hearts, still we must recollect the distance there is between the Most High and his creation.
Even the most elevated and most beloved of God’s creatures are not to speak as though it were in our power to do as we will and as we please.
Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet