DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 6

DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 6

However the Lord may work blessing out of this sorrow, the sorrow is a present reality. It is grievous, but the gain intended by God from it is only acquired through exercise, not to find out the reason for it, but to cast you upon Himself. I do not refer now to Christ’s sympathy, but that you can have no rest but in spreading it out before Him, and thus you will be brought into such a consonance with Him that you will have obtained a deeper knowledge ^[p. 192] of God, and your ministry will be more helpful. My great desire for you is that you may be more and more fitted by Himself for His service. No servant of the Lord knows his work before he is employed. A man of the world would not hire as a coachman, a man who had never driven a horse. The Lord empties us, and thus teaches us the true way to fulfil the service to which He has appointed us. We may sometimes think that He is hard on us, in subjecting us to sorrow and loss in various ways, and often when we least expect it, but He has to make His servants to His hand. The assurance that this is His purpose with you will be a great solace to you. In the light with Him everything is seen in divine reality; that which is of the flesh is condemned, and that which is of the Spirit is confirmed. Where there was any pride of life it will be exposed and withered up, and you will be so self-diminished that you will be able to say: When I was weak then was I strong. It must ever be a losing on man’s side when it is a gaining on Christ’s side. Paul in prison and John in exile were very low in the sight of men, but greatly favoured of the Lord.