Such Kind Of Service

Well, here I am, trying yet again to figure out how to condense my life over the past few months into a blog post!  Several times I have tried to put into words the things that God has been doing, and always I was defeated by the magnitude of the task. How quickly the words multiply into something longer than most people have patience to read, yet without fully conveying the joy and wonder of watching God work

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From the outside, my life doesn’t look too spectacular—lots of garden work in the summer and fall, occasional shifts as a nurse at the local emergency room, several Bible studies and kids’ Bible clubs throughout the week, and always plenty of plain old housework.  But this daily routine (or lack of routine, some days!) has been the framework into which God has woven joy, peace, love, and fulfillment, in larger doses than I’ve ever experienced before!  

There has been the unspeakable joy of seeing a couple of our friends come to faith in the Lord Jesus, and the thrill of rediscovering the Scriptures through their eyes as we study together.  There has been the immense privilege of telling children about the Jesus of Whom they know literally nothing—of Whom they have never heard except as a curse word.  There have been many opportunities to fellowship with other believers and serve them, which always brings great joy as I see Christ’s image more and more strongly reflected in them.

But the greatest thrill of all is that through these events and opportunities, I’ve been discovering God as a real Person.  Like King David said so long ago in Psalm 34:15, God is bending down to hear my cry and to do for me the things I ask, things that only He could do.  There is nothing like waking up in the morning and asking God to reach down His hand to work in our little town, and then watching all through the day to see the things that He is doing, and at last going to bed at night knowing that He has answered and that my work, because it is His work, is not in vain. 

He is so good to give us work to do for Him!  Our works are utterly useless to gain us forgiveness from sin (Ephesians 2: 8,9), but once we have believed in Christ, they are precious to God.  He both made us for good works and made good works for us, according to Ephesians 2:10. Sometimes the work He gives us to do means a real sacrifice of time or effort or sleep, or the willingness to pour yourself out in love and trust God with the likelihood that your love will not be fully appreciated or returned.  Sometimes it just means washing the dishes or vacuuming up the dog hair on the floor.  But regardless of the form that our service to God takes, it is His way of putting our hand on the plow-handle underneath His, and including us in the magnificent things that He is doing.  When He asks us to really expend ourselves for Him and for the sake of the gospel, but it’s not because He needs an extra boost—rather, it’s to give us a taste of the joy of working with Him, and of the satisfaction of gathering a harvest for which we have spent our sweat and tears. 

Yet when it comes down to it, no matter how hard we have labored, the work of God is always a case in which, at the last, we simply “stand by and see the salvation of the Lord.” (Exodus 14:13).  When He begins to move, we can only look in wonder from the sparkplugs in our hands to His lightning bolts, and gasp, “So THAT’S the God we have!!”

The very insignificance of our own labor shows off the surpassing power of God.  When we see hearts softening and Gospel seed sprouting and new growth appearing, we look from our poor efforts to the magnificence of what God is doing, and say, “That could only be from Him!”  

A man many miles ahead of me in the journey of faith once wrote:

“Here is the great secret of success. Work with all your might; but trust not in the least in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing of God; but work, at the same time, with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work. And so on all the days of your life. The result will surely be, abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed... “ --George Mueller