Service

Christian service often starts as a burden, but through trust ing God’s will, it becomes a joy. As believers surrender their will to God, they find freedom and strength in serving Him. True service comes from yielding to God’s guidance, trusting Him for the results, and letting go of self-reflection. This life of faith brings rest, freedom, and power, as believers rely on God’s strength rather than their own.

Perhaps, no part of Christian experience knows a greater change than in service. This is upon entering into the life hid with Christ in God. In lower forms of Christian life, service can feel binding. It is often a duty, and a trial and a cross. At first, some things may bring joy. But, they become weary tasks. They are done faithfully, but with secret disinclination. There are many wishes, both confessed and unconfessed, that they need not be done, or at least, not so often. The soul finds itself saying, instead of the “May I” of love, the “Must I” of duty. The yoke, which was at first easy, begins to gall, and the burden feels heavy instead of light.

One dear Christian expressed it once to me in this way. "After my conversion," she said, "I was full of joy and love. I was so glad and thankful to do anything for my Lord. So, I eagerly entered every open door." But, as my early joy faded and my love cooled, I began to regret my eagerness. I found myself in services that were becoming very distasteful and burdensome. I could not give them up, since I had begun them. It would excite great remark. Yet, I increasingly longed to do so. I was expected to visit the sick, and pray beside their beds.

I was expected to attend prayer-meetings, and speak at them. I was expected to be always ready for every effort in Christian work. The weight of these expectations bowed me down continually. At last, it became unbearable to live the Christian life I had begun, and that everyone expected of me. I would have infinitely preferred to scrub all day on my hands and knees rather than endure my daily Christian work. I envied,” she said, “the servants in the kitchen, and the w omen at the wash- tubs.”

This may seem a strong statement. But, does it not evoke some of your own experiences, dear Christian?

Have you never gone to your work as a slave to his daily task, knowing it was your duty? You must do it. But, like a rubber ball, you bounced back to your real interests and pleasures the moment your work was done.

You know this was the wrong way to feel. You are ashamed of it, but you can't help it. You have not loved your work. If you could have, you would have gladly given it up. Or, if this does not describe your case, perhaps another picture will. You love your work in the abstract. But, in doing it, you find many cares and responsibilities. You have doubts about your ability. This makes it a heavy burden.

You go to it, weary and bowed down, before the work has even begun.

You also distress yourself about your work. You are troubled if the results are not what you want. This, too, is a constant burden. Now, the soul is entirely delivered from all these forms of bondage. It enters fully into the blessed life of faith. First, it delights in any service. It has surrendered its will to the Lord.

He works in it to desire and do His pleasure. The soul now wants to do what God wants. It is always nice to do what we want, no matter how hard or tiring it is. If a man is truly set on a thing, he will. He'll ignore the obstacles in his way. He'll laugh at the idea of any opposition or difficulties hindering him.

How many men have, gladly and thankfully, searched the earth for wealth or to fulfill their ambitions?

They scorned any thoughts of the cross connected with it! How many mothers have congratulated themselves on their sons' promotions to powerful government jobs? They have rejoiced. But, it may have meant years of separation and hardship for their dear ones. Yet, these men and their mothers would have called it an unbearable cross if Christ's service had required the same sacrifice of home, friends, and ease.

It is altogether the way we look at things, whether we think they are crosses or not. I am ashamed to think that any Christian would mourn for doing a thing for Christ, which a worldly man would do for money.

What we need in the Christian life is to get believers to want to do God’s will, as much as other people want to do their own will. And this is the idea of the Gospel. It is what God intended for us; and it is what He has promised. In describing the new covenant in Heb. 8:6- 13 “ But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

“And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

“He says it shall no more be the old covenant made on Sin ai. That is, a law given from the outside, controlling a man by force. But it shall be a law written within, constraining a man by love. “I will put my laws,” He says, “in their mind, and write them in their hearts.” This can mean nothing but that we shall love His law, for anything written on our hearts we must love.

Putting it into our minds is the same as God working in us to “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ” (Philippians 2:13)It means we will want what God wills. We will obey His commands, not out of duty, but because we want to do what He wants. Nothing could possibly be conceived more effectual than this. How often have we thought, "If I could get inside my kids and make them want to do what I want, managing them would be so easy!" We have found, in practice, that to deal with cross-grained people, we must avoid suggesting our wishes to them. We must instead induce them to suggest their own. Then, we will face no opposition. We, a stiff-necked people by nature, always rebel against an outside law. But we embrace a law that springs up within us.

God's plan is to possess a man's inner self. He wants to control and manage his will, and work it for him. Then, obedience is easy and a delight. Service becomes perfect freedom. The Christian must exclaim, "This happy service!" Who could dream earth had such liberty?” Then, dear Christian, if you are in bondage, you must surrender your will to your Lord. Give Him complete control of it. Say, “Yes, Lord, YES !” To everything. Trust Him to work in you to will. To bring your wishes and affections into harmony with His lovely will. I have seen this done over and over, in cases where it looked beforehand an utterly impossible thing.

In one case, a lady had long feared and hated a thing she knew was right. I saw her, in despair and without feeling, give her will to her Lord. She began to say to Him, "Your will be done; your will be done!” And in one short hour that very thing began to look sweet and precious to h er. It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard things into easy and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one. And this is salvation. It is grand. Do try it. You, who find daily Christian living hard, will find that your Master will transform your bondage into the most delicious liberty!

Or, if you love His will in theory, but find it hard to do, there is deliverance in the wonderful life of faith. For in this life no burdens are carried, nor anxieties felt. The Lord is our burden-bearer, and upon Him we must lay off every care. He says, in effect, be careful for nothing, but just make your requests known to me, and I will attend to them all. Be anxious for nothing, He says, not even your service.

Above all, I should think, our service. We are utterly helpless in this. So, even if we were careful, it would not matter. What have we to do with thinking whether we are fit or not!

The Master has the right to use any tool for His work. It is not the tool's place to decide if it is the right one. He knows; and if He chooses to use us, of course we must be fit. And in truth, if we only knew it, our chief fitness is in our utter helplessness. His strength can only be made perfect in our weakness. I can give you a convincing illustration of this.

I once visited an asylum for people with intellectual disabilities. I watched the children doing dumbbell ex ercises. We know that it’s hard for people with intellectual disabilities to control their movements.

They are usually strong, but they lack the skill to use that strength. So, they can’t do much. In the dumbbell exercises, this problem was very clear. They made all sorts of awkward movements.

Occasionally, they would move in time with the music and the teacher’s instructions, but most of the time, it was all out of sync .

One little girl, however, I noticed, who made perfect movements. Not a jar nor a break disturbed the harmony of her exercises. And the reason was, not that she had more strength than the others, but that she had no strength at all. She could not close her hands over the dumb-bells, nor lift her arms. The master had to stand behind her and do it all. She yielded up her members as instruments to him, and his strength was made perfect in her weakness. He knew how to do those exercises. He had planned them. So, when he did them, they were done right. She did nothing but yield herself up utterly into his hands, and he did it all.

The yielding was her part, the responsibility was all his. It was not her skill that was needed to make harmonious movements, but only his. The question was not of her capacity, but of his. Her utter weakness was her greatest strength. If this shows our Christian life, it's no wonder. Paul could say, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Who would not glory in being so weak and helpless, that the Lord Jesus Christ should find no hindrance to the perfect working of His mighty power through us and in us?

Then, too, if the work is His, the responsibility is His, and we have no room left for worrying about it.

Everything in reference to it is known to Him, and He can manage it all. Why not leave it all with Him then, and consent to be treated like a child and guided where to go. The most effective workers I know have no anxiety about their work. They commit it to their dear Master. They ask Him to guide them and trust Him for the wisdom and strength they need, moment by moment.

One might think they were too carefree, with such at stake. But, when you learn God's secret of trusting, you will see the beauty and power of a life yielded to His work. You will cease to condemn. You will wonder how any of God's workers can dare to bear burdens or responsibilities that He alone can bear.

There are one or two other bonds of service from which this life of trust delivers us. We find out that we are not responsible for all the work in the world. The commands cease to be general, and become personal and individual.

The Master does not map out a general course of action for us and leave us to get along through it by our own wisdom and skill as best we may. He leads us step by step, giving us each hour the special guidance needed for that hour.

His blessed Spirit in us brings to mind, when needed, the command. So, we need not think ahead. We should simply take each step as it is revealed to us, following our Lord wherever He leads. “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, ” not his way only, but each separate step in that way. Many Christians make the mistake of expecting to receive God’s commands all in a lump, as it were. They think, because He tells them to give a tract to one person on a train, that they must always give tracts to everyone. They burden themselves with an impossible command.

Once, a young Christian met a soul on a walk. The Lord had sent her to deliver a message. She took it as a command to speak to everyone she met about their souls. This was, of course, impossible, and as a consequence, she was soon in hopeless bondage about it. She was terrified to go outside. She lived in constant shame.

At last, she told her distress to a friend. This friend, a servant of God, said she was mistaken. The Lord has a special work for each worker. In a well-run household, each servant must not try to do the others' work. The same goes for the Lord's servants. They are not obliged to do everything. He told her to seek the Lord's guidance on her work. She should trust Him to show her whom to speak to. He assured her that He guides His own sheep. He goes before them and makes a way for them.

She followed this advice. She laid her work on the Lord. The result was a happy path of daily guidance.

She was led into much blessed work for her Master. She did it all without a care, for He prepared the way before her. Trusting God is like connecting the machinery to the steam engine. The power is not in the machinery, but in the steam. The machinery is useless, disconnected from the engine. But if you connect them, the machinery will run easily. It has great power behind it. So, the Christian life becomes easy and natural. It develops the divine work within.

Most Christians are tense. Their wills clash with God's. The connection is not perfect. It takes effort to move the machinery. But when the connection is made, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can work in us with all its power. We are then free from the law of sin and death. We shall know the glorious liberty of the children of God. We shall lead frictionless lives.

Another form of bondage is to service. The life of faith delivers the soul from it. It refers to the after reflections that always follow any Christian work. These self-reflections are of two sorts. The soul both congratulates itself on its success and is uplifted. Or, it is distressed over its failure and is cast down.

One of these is sure to come. Of the two, I dread the first more. The last causes greater suffering at the time. But in the life of trust, neither will trouble us. We have committed ourselves and our work to the Lord. We will be satisfied to leave it to Him and not think about ourselves at all.

Years ago, I found this sentence in an old book: "Never indulge, at the end of an action, in any self- reflection, whether of self-congratulation or despair." Forget the things that are behind, the moment they are past. Leave them with God.” It has been of unspeakable value to me. When the temptation comes, as it always does, to indulge in these reflections, I turn from them at once. I refuse to think about my work at all. I leave it to the Lord to overrule the mistakes and bless it as He chooses.

In short, for happy and effective service, just trust your work to the Lord and leave it there. Do not pray, "Lord, guide me; give me wisdom; arrange for me." Then, rise from your knees and take back the burden. Don't try to guide and arrange for yourself. Leave it with the Lord, and remember that what you trust to Him, you must not worry over nor feel anxious about. Trust and worry cannot go together.

If your work is a burden, it is because you are not trusting it to Him. If you trust it to Him, you will find the yoke He puts on you is easy. The burden He gives you is light. Even amid a life of ceaseless activity, you will find rest for your soul.

But some may say that this teaching would make us into mere puppets. I answer, No, it would simply make us into servants. A servant must not plan, arrange, decide, or supply materials. He must only obey. It is for the Master to do all the rest. The servant is not responsible, either, for results. The Master alone knows what results he wished to have produced, and so he alone can judge of them. Intelligent service must, of course, sympathize with the Master's plans. But, there cannot be a full understanding.

The Master cannot shift his responsibility to the servant. With our limited view and great ignorance, we can do little but accept God's will. We shouldn't expect to fully understand it. We must leave all results to Him.

What seems like failure on the surface is often, on the unseen side, a great success. If we allow ourselves to lament and worry, we will be foolish. We should be singing and rejoicing, not weeping. It is far better to avoid all self-reflection. We should not think about ourselves at all, whether for good or ill.

We are not our own property, nor our own business. We belong to God. We are His instruments and His business. He always attends to His own business. So, He will, of course, attend to us.

I once heard of a slave on a ship during a violent storm. While everyone else was scared, he whistled happily. Finally, someone asked if he was afraid of drowning. He smiled and said, "Well, maybe I am.

But I don’t belong to myself, and it will only be my master’s loss." This attitude could help us avoid many worries in our work. With a group of people fully dedicated to serving and trusting in our Master, imagine what He could do. One person like this could defeat a thousand, and two could put ten thousand to flight. Nothing would be impossible for them because, with the Lord, it doesn’t matter whether we have many or few.

May God quickly raise such an army! And may you, my dear reader, enroll in this army today. Yield yourself to God as one alive from the dead. May every part of you be His instrument of righteousness, to be used by Him as He wishes.