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###### Trade by Another’s Instructions

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Exhortation to Those Who Began the Heavenly Trade But Have Backslidden

Advice: Set Up No More for Yourselves, But Become Factors for Christ

Trade by Another’s Instructions}

Follow Christ’s instructions and be guided by His orders concerning the management of your heavenly trade. Take letters of instruction from your Creditor, how to lay out His money and how to manage and allocate His goods. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 ESV). Cartwright said that leaning on our own understanding is the most hidden and subtle kind of idolatry. “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot” (Numbers 15:39 NASB). Since the fall, people have a mighty propensity to take the scepter into their own hands and become the governor of their own ways. But God cannot put up with this because it is inconsistent with His supremacy. It is also inconsistent with the state into which people are redeemed by His grace: absolute devotedness to God (2 Corinthians 8:5).1342 You have likewise chosen the Lord to be your Lawgiver and King if you are His. Thus, by your own consent, you are under His control, according to His pleasure, in everything you do. The rectitude of every action consists in its conformity to the will of your Lord and Sovereign. As the eyes of a handmaid wait on her mistress, so should believers look to Christ for direction in all they do (Psalm 123:2).1343 Christian, your former disobedience in the prosecution of your heavenly trade has thrown you back and almost ruined you. Oh, be more observant of divine commands in the future. Follow your instructions and walk by rule. “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1 ESV). Beg wisdom from God in order to know His will in everything, so you have a warrant for every action you perform, both religious and mundane. This will give you comfort now and peace at the Last Day.

1342“And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 8:5 NKJV).

1343“Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God, Until He is gracious to us” (Psalm 123:2 NASB).

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