OUR VALUE TO CHRIST
OUR VALUE TO CHRIST
The Lord has prayed that you should be kept from the evil here, but not that you should be taken out of the world. He delights in leaving us here for Himself, as well as to be a cheer to one another. There is nothing more encouraging than to be assured of the interest, and I might say consequence, we are to the Lord. You may feel you are very small and of little use; but when you turn to Him as to His thought of you, He says, ‘I am glorified in you’. Can anything promote purpose of heart in you to answer to His mind more than knowing that He makes so much of what you consider so little, and rightly so, when we think how much He deserves.
The very fact that being here for Him is a pleasure to Him, and that as we blossom, and bud, and bring forth fruit, He is glorified, urges us to be more and more according to His mind. If I am only a daisy in a garden, and I know the owner of the garden prizes me very much, and likes to have me in his garden, and comes to see after me every day, and confers on me continually, like the shining of the sun, some special mark of his favour, do not you think that the little daisy will not be thinking of its littleness or uselessness, but of the unaccountable care, interest, and appreciation of the owner of the garden? He thinks of you, and He cannot love little. How the heart of the daisy, if it had one, would expand as it caught the approaching footsteps, in the daily visits of the owner. They say [p. 236] flowers do not open out into full bloom on a cold sunless day, but when the sun invites them, they expand into their greatest brilliancy; and thus the more you are assured in heart that you are to be left here for His glory, and that His delight is in you, the more will you be encouraged, and stirred up too, to be to Him what He esteems you to be. It is not so much what one does, or what one is, but what one is to Him; and not to Him only, but to His own here. Can anything conduce more to render my stay in this scene happy and cheerful, however enfeebled in health, or tried in circumstances, than the simple fact that, staying here, I can please my Lord, and be in fellowship with His interests in His people? And again, nothing can more promote zeal and earnestness in me to answer to this love than the very assurance of the estimate I am held in by Him, however I may think myself unworthy of it.
The Lord grant you to be so assured in heart of His interest in you, that daily you may more and more answer to His pleasure, and not be in any way cast down because you can apparently do so little. The fragrance of His name is a crown of glory to the greatest invalid. The Lord delight your heart in His unfailing love for you, and bless you in every way.