“Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father . . . comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work” (2 Thess. 2:16-17).
Let us our feebleness recline
On that eternal love of Thine,
And human thoughts forget;
Childlike, attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and serve Thee while ’tis day,
Nor leave our sweet retreat.
“Who hath despised the day of small things?” We are slow to learn that the importance of any service depends upon God’s estimate of it . . . that the meanest service . . . is worthy of all our devotedness and zeal, if the mind and heart of God are upon it and if He has put it into our hand.
We cannot have power with men if we have not power with God. The greatest mistake any of us can make is to seek to have power before men without having been in the presence of God.
We are as dependent upon God when we speak to one soul as when we preach to a thousand. I have learned this by experience; I have gone to see a sick person in great self-confidence and found I had nothing to say. And then the Lord taught me I must wait upon Him for the message for a single soul as much as when I was going to preach. May we ever remember this, that there may be no trace of self-confidence remaining in the heart.
The wonder is that the Lord condescends to use anything which He gives one to say, seeing that we so often adulterate it with our own thoughts.
It is so gracious of Him to give us any encouragement in our service, but I am convinced that, in the issue, the fruit of our labors which we have not seen will be far more abundant than that which we have been permitted to know of, and hence it is that we have to scatter the seed in faith.
I am certain that we must leave results until the judgment seat of Christ. In the meantime our one desire must be to gain His approbation and be content with that. Nothing else is worth seeking for.
I suspect that we shall see in the future that the meetings we thought the least of were among the best. We may therefore take courage and go forward in the knowledge that He who can appraise them at their true value is the One who will praise us most for what we have really done for Him.
I am coming to this conclusion, that the more one ministers Christ Himself, the more you can count upon divine assistance. To exalt Christ is to be in communion with the mind of God. This will be our sole employment in heaven.
One lesson I am learning of late is our absolute dependence upon the power of God every time we speak. It is not our liberty nor our words, but it is the power of God that affects the souls to whom we speak.
A preacher will be so conscious that only divine power can touch a soul that he will rest in God about it.
W