PURPOSE IS NOT EXECUTION

PURPOSE IS NOT EXECUTION

I do not think you understand me and the view I take of your present position. You went to ———— as the Lord’s servant, led, I trust, of Him. It is quite possible that you were as truly set on serving Him as Moses was when he essayed to deliver his people out of the hand of the Egyptians (Exodus 2: 11, 12; Acts 7: 25); but purpose is not execution. Moses was true in purpose, but he failed in execution, and you may have been true in purpose, but you have failed in execution. I take nothing into account — the causes, etc. — I merely state the fact — you have failed in execution.

Now this being the case, what is the servant of God to do? Is he to retire from service? No! but he is to be ready for the smallest service, like Moses, who though not able to deliver a nation, will yet help the women who went to water the flocks. We read (Exodus 2: 17), “Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock;”

^[p. 52] he is a servant still every inch! The real servant, if checked or hindered on one side, is ready for whatever opportunity offers, however small and insignificant it may seem; he does not take into account how this person or that person has treated him. If he does, he only excuses himself on the plea that he is not able for the post which he undertook, and he proves that he is not of strong material, that he is one who is not fit for the rough day but can only serve when everything smiles on him. The Lord wants servants who can begin with much patience (see 2 Corinthians 6), and end with “having nothing, but possessing all things”. No servant of God ever proved himself fit for service but according as he was able to act under pressure. Joseph is most unrighteously cast into prison, and most ungratefully detained there, before he is fit for the position which God had designed for him. David had to endure at Ziklag a combination of the greatest sorrows and distress before he was fit for the throne of Israel. I believe the Lord has allowed a great pressure to come upon you, and instead of reefing your topsails and making all snug until the storm is over, you fall to, and abuse the wind. The wind may be unsympathetic, but that is only for the pleasure-boat to say. The sturdy man-of-war puts out to sea, assured that he will outlive the storm, and be ready for service again when required. David was greatly distressed at Ziklag, but he “encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). I am grieved that you should lose this fine opportunity for proving yourself qualified by patience and lowliness to serve. I am not going to tell you what I condemn in others, nor do I intend to tell others what I condemn in you. A wise physician does not talk to his patients about his other patients’ maladies. My desire as to you is that you should forget yourself and consider wholly for the Lord. Those nearest and dearest to us naturally can do us the greatest mischief spiritually, because they consider too much for us and too little for the Lord.