In His name
When my daughter Aimee was in nursery school, she'd come home each day with drawings, collages, and other projects. Next to her own name she'd scrawl the name of someone she loved usually Mommy or Daddy, sometimes baby brother Ben. "I did this for you," she'd proudly say.
As I reflect on this, I remember the apostle Paul's exhortation, "Whatever you do ... do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus" Col. 3:1 7. If Aimee could do every school project for me or for her Mom, surely I can do my "projects" for my heavenly Father. Now I often ask myself, Have I written my Lord's name on all I've done today? Laura DuVall Bush.
See: Luke 24:47; Acts 3:6; Acts 16:18; Col. 3:17.
A heavenly shake-up
Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, "Shake well before using." That is what Cod has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever useable. Paul wrote to Timothy, "Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee." Vance Havner.
See: Isa. 48:10; 2 Cor. 4:7; Heb. 12:11.
Fulfillment lies in walk, not work
God didn't call me to find fulfillment in the quantity of my work for Him but in the quality of my walk with him. Robert J. Morgan.
See: Eph. 4:1; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 2:6.
The mystery of motivation
The mysterious internal combustion called (motivation) is sustained when you know you are important to a worthy cause. Roger Thompson.
See: Ps. 39:6; Prov. 22:29; Matt. 22:4.
Choosing your vocation
Choose that employment or calling in which you may be most serviceable to God. Choose not that in which you may be most rich or honorable in the world; but that in which you may do most good, and best escape sinning. Richard Baxter.
See: Eccles. 9:10; Eph. 4:28; 2 Thess. 3:12.
Wood into marble
It was claimed for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city of wood, and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from a prayerless to a prayerful people has done a greater work than did Augustus. . . . And after all, this is the prime work of the preacher. E. M. Bounds.
See: 1 Kings 18:37-38; 2 Chron. 7:14.
Pray and post guard
After their long and weary exile in Babylon the people of Israel were set free to return to their own land. Spurred on by Nehemiah, they began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. This aroused the hostility of the pagans around them, who threatened to undo their work. The people of Israel took two essential steps: they prayed to God, and they posted a guard day and night. Even as they prayed for God's protection and help, they did what they could. They knew that prayer is not a way to avoid responsibility, it is not a shortcut to success without effort. Ron Klug.
See: 1 Cor. 3:9; Hag. 2:4; Neh. 4:13-14.
Fried chickens don't fly
If God did not bless, not one hair, not a solitary wisp of straw would grow; but there would be an end of everything. At the same time God wants me to take this stand: I would have nothing whatever if I did not plow and sow. God does not want to have success come without work, and yet I am not to achieve it by my work. He does not want me to sit at home, to loaf, to commit matters to God, and to wait till a fried chicken flies into my mouth. That would be tempting God. Martin Luther.
See: 1 Pet. 2:15; James 4:1 5; Rom. 1:10.
The more important work
One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works. Meister Eckhart.
See: Matt. 7:22-23; Rom. 3:20; Eph. 2:8-9.
Duty and love
Duty makes us do things well; but love makes us do them beautifully. Phillips Brooks.
See: Rom. 12:11; 1 Cor. 14:12; 1 Thess. 4:11.
One-track ministry
I suppose they say of me, "He is a radical; he is a fanatic; he only has one idea." Well, it is a glorious idea. I would rather have that said of me than be a man of ten thousand ideas and do nothing with them. D. L. Moody.
See: Mark 13:34; 1 Cor. 3:8.
Each one is needed to make the message known
A certain band of warlike knights had been exceedingly victorious in all their conflicts. They were men of valor and of indomitable courage and had subdued province after province for their king. But all of a sudden they said in the council chamber, "We have at our head a most valiant warrior. Would it not be better if, leaving a few such as he to go out to the fight, the mere men-at-arms, who make up the ordinary ranks, were to rest at home? We should be much more at our ease, our horses would not so often be covered with foam, nor our armor be bruised. Many would enjoy abundant leisure, and great things would be done by the valiant few."
Now, the foremost champions, with fear and trembling, undertook the task and went to the conflict, and they fought well, as the rolls of fame can testify. But still, from the very hour in which that scheme was planned and carried out, no city was taken, no province was conquered. Then the champion spoke out, saying, "How did you think that a few men could do the work of all the thousands? When you all went to the fight, and every man took his share, we dashed upon the foe like an avalanche and crushed him beneath our feet."
If we, as Christians, are to subdue the earth, every one of us must join in the fight. We must not exempt a single soldier of the cross, neither man nor woman, rich nor poor, but each must fight for the Lord Jesus according to his or her ability, that his kingdom may come, and that his will may be done on earth even as it is in heaven. We shall see great things when all agree to this and put it in practice. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
See: 2 Cor. 5:18-20.
Activity
Today, through an overplus of Christian activities, Jesus Christ is being dethroned and Christian wits and wisdom are taking his place Oswald Chambers. We haven't the time to take our time. Eugene lonesco.
We hurt people by being too busy. Too busy to notice their needs. Too busy to drop that note of comfort or encouragement or assurance of love. Too busy to listen when someone needs to talk. Too busy to care. Billy Graham.
Activity
The activities we do for God are secondary. God is looking for people who long for communication with him.
The depths of our spirituality does not depend upon changing the things we do, but in doing for God what we ordinarily do for ourselves. Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (C. 1605-1691)
The people who are always desperately active are a nuisance; it is through the saints who are one with him that God is doing things all the time. The broken and the jaded and the twisted are being ministered to by God through the saints who are not overcome by their own panic, who because of their oneness with him are absolutely at rest, consequently he can work through them Oswald Chambers.
Only a Little Pencil
Mother Theresa . . . and her sisters devoted their lives to God's service and are known throughout the world. When asked about her work, Mother Theresa's reply was: "I am just a little pencil in God's hands. . . . Doing something beautiful for God." Kitty Muggeridge.
See: Mark 10:43-44; Mark 13:34; Gal. 6:10.
