“At Thy Word, I Will”

The Divine will settles everything of duty. When we know what our Master would have us to do, there is no longer the slightest question as to what we should do. All we have to do then is to obey. We have nothing to do with considering whether the command is convenient or not, with determining how wise it may be, or with questioning its possibility or impossibility.

When the Master told Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch, the experienced fisherman promptly answered, “At thy word I will.”* (Luke 5:5) He had learned the first lesson in discipleship—prompt, cheerful, unquestioning obedience. According to ordinary fishing rules, nothing would come from obeying this command. Peter reported the problem, yet did not argue. The word of the Master had supreme authority with him. It could not possibly be mistaken. No appeal from it was to be considered for a moment. So Peter said without hesitation, “At thy word I will.”

Peter’s example is to be followed in every case by the Master’s friends. The question of human judgment or opinion is not to be considered when Christ speaks.

The best human wisdom is fallible and may easily be mistaken. Men in authority make mistakes of judgment, which brings harm or loss to those who must follow their direction. On a battlefield a general’s mistake may result in the loss of many lives. Somebody blundered and the six hundred rode into the valley of death. Ofttimes bad advice has wrecked destinies. Even those who love us most truly may err in the counsel they give us, and may lead us into paths which are not good.

In short, many people suffer from the ignorance of those whom they trust as guides. But in Jesus Christ we have a Leader who never errs in wisdom. He never gives wrong advice. He is never mistaken in His decision as to what we ought to do. We are absolutely sure that His commands are both right and wise. Our own opinion and judgment may be against what He bids us to do. It may seem to us, from the human and earthly side, that the course on which He is taking us can lead only to disaster. In such cases, it is an immeasurable comfort to us to know that His biddings are always absolutely infallible. When He bids us to cast our nets in any particular place, we may be perfectly sure that we shall draw them up full.

Many of the things our Master calls us to do or to endure, do not seem to our eyes at the time to be the best things. Much of our life is disappointment. Sorrow comes often with its hot tears, its emptying of the heart, its pain and bitterness. When we set out on any bright, sunny path, we do not know into what experience we shall be led.

Some years ago, a noble young man married a sweet, beautiful girl. They were very happy. Life began for them in a garden of roses. Only three bright years had passed, however, when the young wife broke down in health. She has been an invalid ever since, much of the time unable to leave her room. The burden has been a very heavy one for the husband, requiring continual self-denial and sacrifice, besides the grief and anxiety it has brought.

That was not the life these two dreamed of on their wedding morning. They thought then only of gladness and prosperity. They did not anticipate that sickness and trouble would break into their paradise. But the Master has made no mistake. Even already, to those who have watched their lives and noted the fruit of the suffering in them, it is becoming apparent that love and goodness are written in all the painful lines of the long story. The young man has been growing all the years in strength, in gentleness, in purity of spirit, in self-control, in the peace of God, yes, in all manly qualities. It seemed a strange place to bid him cast his nets—into the deep waters of disappointment—but he is now drawing them full of rich blessing and good.

Here is another story of wedded life. A gentle girl was married to a young man of much promise. But soon the bright promise faded. Their prosperous circumstances were suddenly interrupted, and the accumulation of years, the fruit of hard toil, was gone. Then the husband’s health failed, and times of pinching poverty followed. To earthly sight, the young wife has had little in these years but trial and sorrow.

There are those who would question the wisdom of the Master in leading her into all this experience of pain and suffering. We cannot understand it. We cannot read the divine love in the strange writing, yet we know that the words really must spell love as the angels read them. To infinite Wisdom, the way of sorrow seemed the best way for the adorning, the enriching, the ennobling, and the perfecting of that beautiful life. Sunshine is not all that the fields and gardens need to make them beautiful; they must have clouds and rain as well, or they would be parched and withered. It is so also with human lives. Prosperity and happiness are not the only experiences which bring blessing.

“Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain!
Too much sun would wither thee;
’Twill shine again.
The sky is very black, ’tis true,
But just behind it shines the blue.

“Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain!
In sorrow sweetest things will grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches; and thou wilt have the sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.”1

We may always say to Christ—whatever His bidding may be, whatever He asks us to do or to suffer, into whatever mystery or trial or pain He may lead us—“At Thy word, I will.” There need never be any smallest exception to this obedience. Though to our narrow, limited vision it seems that only hurt and loss can come to us out of the experience, still we may heed and obey the Voice which calls and commands, knowing that in spite of all seeming ill—there must be blessing and good in the end. We need never question the divine wisdom. Who are we, that we could know better than God what we need, what will bring to us the truest good? God’s will is always perfect—and we may completely, unquestioningly accept it, knowing that the outcome will be blessing.

This makes the way of life very plain and simple. We have only one thing to do—to obey Christ. In whatever way His will is made known to us, whether in His word, through our own consciences, or in His providences, we have but to accept it and do it. It may mean the setting aside of cherished plans, the giving up of things that are dearest to us, a life of pain and suffering, but in any case it is ours to obey without question. We may fix it unalterably in our belief, that there can never be any mistake in our Master’s guidance. Obedience always leads to blessing. It cannot be otherwise, since God is God and His name is Love. Christ cannot fail to keep His smallest word. The universe would fall to wreck if He did. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”* (Matthew 24:35) Someday faith will be made sight, and we shall see that the end of all our Lord’s commands, all His leadings, is good.

“Sometime, when all life’s lessons have been learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have set,
The things which our weak judgments here have spurned,
The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet,
Will flash before us, out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
And we shall see how all God’s plans are right,
And how what seems reproof was love most true.

“But not today. Then be content, poor heart!
God’s plans like lilies pure and white unfold.
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest,
When we shall clearly know and understand,
I know that we will say, ‘God knew the best!’ ”2