Wait on the Lord for guidance

Note well... that, before David went to war, in each case, he waited upon God: “David enquired of the Lord.” Whenever we have any enterprise on hand, it is wise to wait upon God for direction, and for help. David had received divine guidance before; but counsel in one dilemma is not guidance for another. Though David had been led of God the first time to fight the Philistines, he did not consider that the direction then given would apply again, so he went a second time; and it is written, “David enquired of the Lord.” The answers which David received on these two occasions were different. The first time, the Lord said, “Go up.” The second time, he said, “Thou shalt not go up.” Had David been content with his former waiting upon God, he would have made a great mistake.

What you have to do today you may not have to do tomorrow, and what you did yesterday may have been right enough for yesterday, but it may be as wrong as possible for today. Wait more continually upon God, dear friends. Be not satisfied with what you have received of direction and support; but go to God again and again. If you go to him daily for manna, you may well go to him daily for counsel. David did this, and he acted wisely. I am afraid, dear friends, that many Christians go carelessly blundering on, as we say, “neck or nothing.” They do the first thing that comes to hand, and do not wait, and pause, and consider, as they ought.

I know some friends who seem to me to enter into great speculations which they had much better let alone, and who venture into various schemes which they would be much wiser to leave to other people. If they would only wait upon God, they would find themselves restrained from many things which now they attempt, and impelled to other things which now they neglect.... If a man will only wait upon God, it will help his own mind to form a correct judgment, and, besides that, the Lord will give him guidance of which he never dreamed.

From a sermon entitled "The Lord Leading, David Following," delivered November 14, 1889.

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