THE MARTHA SERVICE
THE MARTHA SERVICE
You ask me whether I have any thoughts on the Martha service. I know what you mean by the question. The way in which Martha served was not acceptable to the Lord. The snare with zealous, but unbroken, hearts is to do the right thing in a wrong way; that is, in a human way. It is not enough to know the right thing, but I must also know the right way of doing it. The latter is not easily learned; the former is the fruit of light; the latter is never acquired but as there is practical grace, charity - the activity of Christ’s nature in me by the Spirit. Martha desired to minister to Christ, but instead of first waiting upon Him, and getting imbued with His mind and tastes, she essays to serve at her own dictation. This was her mistake. When I consult Christ’s tastes instead of my own, I am not the less ready to spend and be spent for Him; but I serve in quite a different way. It never occurs to me that what I am doing is a burden, when I work in answer to His mind; on the contrary, I have the assured sense of pleasing Him, and this is the greatest gratification to my love for Him. I feel I cannot do enough. Instead of being wearied by my doings for Him, I feel they are quite inadequate to express the delight which it gives me to do anything which would meet with His approbation. When I have the sense of pleasing Him, my only thought is to do more; and my study, to follow on in the line which He likes.
Like a fruit-tree, I bud, and blossom, and bring forth fruit, encouraged at every step by the consciousness that I am answering to His mind, who planted me, and gave me grace to bring forth fruit to His pleasure.
[p. 285] It is a well-known fact, that the richness of the soil is never drawn upon, never exhausted, until the fruit ripens. Green vegetables do not exhaust the ground. There can be a great deal of green service, which is not a strain, nor a tax, on the servant; but when there is real fruit, there is sure to be both. I call it green service when a person spends what he cannot otherwise use; but I call it ripe fruit when one, in order to please the Lord in serving His people, curtails his own liberty, and deprives himself of many little comforts which might be called needful. In fulfilling this service there is self-denial, but it is not felt to be a burden, like Martha’s, because of the delight of the heart in meeting the Master’s wishes.
The christian is led of the Spirit to aspire to his proper service and calling; and the more genuinely he accepts this leading, and pursues it in faith - that is, in dependence on God, “which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight” (Psalm 144: 1) - the more surely and efficiently will he reach, and retain, the post assigned to him.
The tree that has the best fruit has always the best and most healthy leaves. It is the small things here which really constitute our testimony.