THE SECRET OF REST.-F.B.Meyer

Will you take the yoke of God to-day? God’s will comes to us (first) by His Spirit, (second)by His Word, and (thirdly) by circumstances. And I think it is in circumstances that we are most tested. It is just there that we have to meet God, and just as in some electric light the two points have to come very close together before the light shines between them, so the point of your will and the point of God’s will have to touch, and then the light of acquiescence and peace flashes out.
You know of course what a corn on the foot is–the boot rubs it, and nature throws out a shield of hard skin, which we call a corn; and the tender flesh is under the corn. There have been things in my life that fretted and worried me, and I seemed to throw out a little corn, and was strong and hard and bore up like a martyr, like a hero. But I learned that that was not the sweetest way. I was running away from God’s will whenever I had a chance, and evaded it. I have learned better lately–just quietly day by day to let God’s will play upon my heart, not running from it, not hiding from it, but taking it. I take His yoke.
There are some people who bear the yoke because they cannot help it; there are other people who take it. Have you taken it? Take it now by your will. You have lost your dear husband or wife, or you have lost your money, or you have lost your lover. Now it is no use running away into society. I meet with many girls who have been disappointed in love, and they have gone into society, and made themselves hard, and steeled themselves against love in every way, while they have been running away from themselves, from God. You will live to come to an end at last. You will learn to look up into the face of the Crucified, and say:
“Jesus, I take the yoke.”
Why, you know when you are driving a young horse, if that horse frets and kicks, it simply gets itself into a lather, but it has to go your way after all. Much better for the young horse if, instead of plunging and kicking and fretting, it would only take the collar and the bit right away.
That is what you are–a young colt; and you are foaming and fretting and working yourself into a fury.
You will never get right in that way. Come back, and quietly take what God permits, and understand that in that there is the secret of rest; and a new tranquility will come. You will have your floods of tears, but you will say: “I take the will of God.”
“Anoint your head and wash your face.” I am so very fond of that verse. We go about whining: “O dear! my suffering! ” And so we give people the conception that God is very hard, and everybody pities us, and it is rather comfortable to be pitied. You feel that you are somebody if you excite somebody else’s pity, and in that you get your reward. But if you anoint your head, and wash your face, and put on your sweetest look, and dress your nicest, and live your sweet orderly self, hiding your pain in your heart, God who seeth in secret will reward you openly, and you shall live to see what you thought absolutely necessary to your life to be a handful of withered leaves. I thank God for my disappointments, because I see now that they were His appointments.
There are the two other methods by which you can find rest in your soul. The one is by faith. “We which have believed do enter into rest.” Heb_4:3.
The point there is that faith has two hands. With one hand faith is always handing over, and with the other she is always reaching down; the up and the down life. The angels went up on the ladder carrying Jacob’s worries, and they came down the [adder bringing God’s help. Mind you have the two directions in your life. Send them up, and let them come down.
Do you know what it is when you are worried to kneel down and say to God: ” Father, take this,” and by one definite act to hand over the worry to God and leave it there? I heard a lady say that she had been in the habit of kneeling by her bedside and handing things over to God, and then jumping into her bed and by a strong pull pulling in all the things after her. :Now that is not the best way. When you really trust God, you put a thing into His hands, and then you do not worry yourself or Him. If there is one thing that annoys me more than another, it is for a man to say to me: “Will you do this?” And I say: “Certainly,” and then he keeps sending postcards or letters to me all the time to work me up. I may: “That man does not trust me.”
So when I have really handed a thing over to God I leave it there, and I dare not worry for fear it would seem as if I mistrusted Him. But I keep looking up to Him, I cannot help doing that,–and say: “Father, I am trusting.”
Like my dog at home: he used to worry me very much to be fed at dinner, but he never got any food that way. But lately he has adopted something which always conquers me: he sits under the table, and puts one paw on my knee. He never barks, never leaps around, never worries me, but he sits under the table with that one paw on my knee, and that conquers me; I cannon resist the appeal. Although my wife says I never must do it, I keep putting little morsels under the table.
Soul, do you know what I am talking about? That is the way to live–with your hand on God’s knee. Say:
“My God, I am not going to worry; I am not going to fret; but there is my hand, and I wait until the time comes, and Thou shalt give me the desire of my heart.”
Take His yoke, and trust Him.
And then lastly, reckon on God’s faithfulness. I remember so well Hudson Taylor coming to my church the first time I ever met him. He stepped on the platform and opened the Bible to give an address, and said: ” Friends, I will give you the motto of my life,” and he turned to Mar_11:22 : “Have faith in God.” The margin says: “Have the faith of God,” but Hudson Taylor said it meant: “Reckon on God’s faith to you.” He continued: “All my life has been so fickle. Sometimes I could trust, sometimes I could not, but when I could not trust then I reckoned that God would be faithful.” There is a text that says: ” If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself.” And I sometimes go to God about a thing, and say: ” My God, I really cannot trust Thee about this, I cannot trust Thee to pull me through this expenditure of money with my means, but I reckon on Thy faithfulness.” And when you cease to think about your faith, and, like Sarah, reckon Him faithful, your faith comes without your knowing it, and you are strong.

F.B.Meyer