Have you ever noticed the service of a brother named Onesiphorus? I believe it has a word for us in these days when many are isolated and often are unable to meet with the Lord’s people for fellowship.
The Apostle said of him in 2 Timothy 1:16-18, “He oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. . . . He sought me out very diligently, and found me. . . . In . . . many things he ministered unto me.”
What a lovely list of things are mentioned here, and how suggestive surely to any whose heart is filled with the love of Christ! “He oft refreshed me” like a morning breeze, full of freshness and vitality; this dear man had often refreshed the heart of the great Apostle. Although Paul may at times have been cast down, here was one who had ministered to him, who had encouraged his heart, who had cheered his spirit, and who had sympathized with the Lord’s prisoner in his bonds. Are there not some whom we could refresh, some drooping spirits whom we could water, some whom we might be able to cheer and encourage? And then having done it once, do it often!
Of Onesiphorus it is also said, “He sought me out very diligently, and found me.” And there are some lonely ones who will only be found in this way. They will need seeking out and finding, and such service is noticed by Him who could seek out the poor outcast woman of Sychar’s well. They are known to the Lord and never forgotten by Him, yet He would have us search them out and by so doing remind them of that link which binds us together and to Christ in glory.
Both in Rome and Ephesus, Onesiphorus ministered to the Apostle, in what way we do not know, but it was known to the Lord and was precious to Him because done to one of His own, as He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” May we too be ready thus to serve Him as we serve those that are His own!
From Christian Truth, 5:328
“The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” (Psa. 1:6). What untold solace and encouragement it brings to our hearts to know that “the Lord knoweth.” Whatever trials may beset us, however grieved our hearts may be, however much we are misunderstood by friends or foes, though we “are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” still “the Lord knoweth,” for “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” even Him who “calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them.” And He says to His own, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” (Isa. 43:12). Let us follow the example of David, who “encouraged himself in the Lord his God,” for “He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
The floods overflow, and the trials
overwhelm,
And the heart is as heavy as stone,
But His Word comes to us, “Be of
good cheer,”
For He will never leave us alone.
J. M. Marchbanks,
from Comfort of the Scriptures
The Secret of Endurance
We may have often known what it was to be roused by a stirring word of exhortation, but incentives of this kind do not give power for endurance. They are like the crack of the whip, which makes the old horse increase his pace for a few yards, but he is soon back at his old jog trot.
What is needed for endurance is to have Christ commanding the heart. Turn the tired horse’s head toward home, and see how he will go! We need more of the attraction of home, more of the attraction of that blessed Person who is the center of all the thoughts of God and of the place where He is.
From Christian Truth, 13:190