WORSHIP BEFORE SERVICE
WORSHIP BEFORE SERVICE
When there is real working with God there will be no effort to convince ourselves or others that we are doing something. If we are waiting on God and ready for His [p. 244] service, He will use us when the time comes. Paul, at Philippi, was going on patiently and faithfully, his own soul was very fervent with God, but without much apparent result as to work, when he was called to effective service. Pleasing God is the highest service. This was Enoch’s service, and “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11: 6). Some seem to intimate by their acts that God is a rewarder of those who diligently work for Him. It is true that if I seek Him I shall not neglect anything that concerns Him, but then it is Himself and to please Him that I am seeking and not the work. It is a healthy sign when saints are zealous of good works, but I believe there is nothing so likely to sap the soul as the satisfaction one derives from feeling that one is useful. With all of you I grieve to say there is now more work and less worship than when you were, as a company, fewer and less intelligent. The Spirit is less ruling, there is less oneness, and the outward activity of service is like a cloak to conceal the internal weakness. What we admire much we seek to resemble. If the soul is much occupied with the Lord in worship it must be conformed to Him whom it worships; and then every service or act is so wise, so timely, so convincing that blessing must ensue. When you have been much in active service you need to go to the ‘desert to rest awhile’ with the Lord. The soul who does not seek this, and long for it, is the soul that needs it most. The tendency of the day is to make work everything, and to overlook worship. I desire to promote the other. David, as his psalms testify, always renewed his spirit by nearness to God, and by the blessedness of His presence.
I feel that there is so little of the power which results from Christ asserting His place in us, so that the old garment is rent, and the mantle, of Elijah adopted instead. Young converts coming in amongst us have but little to encourage them. We cannot say to them, ‘We were ensamples unto you to follow us’. We have to renew our sense in “Without me ye can do nothing”. May we not only be servants but witnesses. There are many servants [p. 245] now, but few witnesses. It is glorious to be a witness of a rejected Lord in the place where He was refused, and to have His chief interest our chief interest. No man prospers divinely whose chief interest is not the same as Christ’s. Surely what He is most interested in, there the most of His ways and virtues must be known. The Lord keep us with a simple eye for Himself and His interests, that Shalem may not turn us aside even for a day.