Speaking Against God
December 12
Don’t you feel glad that you gave it all up to the Lord before hearing those assuring words from the Doctor? I hope it will teach you a lesson you will never forget, and that you will never again permit yourself to be anxious and worried over any possible evils. I would feel I had committed a positive sin if I would do it; and I want you to feel the same.
I am sure anxiety is a far greater sin than we usually think. I had an “opening” the other day on the amount of unbelief contained in some of the questions which the soul asks. Look for instance at Ex. 17:7 “Is the Lord among us or not?” This is called in the text “tempting” the Lord. Look also at Psalm 78:19. “Yea, they spake against God; they said, “Can God furnish a table in this wilderness?” Their question here was called “speaking against God,” and if we think about it we shall see it really was that; for it surely would be speaking against a hostess if her guests should question whether she was able to provide them with enough to eat, when she had invited them to visit her.
I feel sure that questioning God or His ways is only a subtle form of speaking against Him. Nothing but absolute submission and confidence can be tolerated on the part of souls who are brought into union with Christ.
—To Priscilla, February 16, 1883
SMITH, H. W. – DIETER, M. E., The Christian’s secret of a holy life: the unpublished personal writings of Hannah Whitall Smith (Oak Harbor 1997).