SERVICE-ENCOURAGEMENT
You don’t
have to serve God long to be tempted to think your work is in vain. Thoughts
come that your service is a waste of time. Results are hard to find. Regardless
of what you think and see, God promises that your work is never in vain (I
Corinthians 15:58). That doesn’t mean you’ll ever see all the fruit of your
labors you’d hope for, or that you won’t frequently feel nothing has come of
all your efforts. But it does mean that even if you can’t see proof, your
service to God is never in vain.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual
Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 127, Used by permission of
NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Serving may
be as appreciated as a good testimony in a worship service, but typically it’s
as thankless as washing dishes after a church social. Most service, even that
which seems the most glamorous, is like an iceberg. Only the eye of God ever
sees the larger, hidden part of it.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual
Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 116, Used by permission of
NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Most
men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can
wholly satisfy the life of Christ within His followers except the adoption of
Christ’s purpose toward the world He came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches
are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of
working with God for the fulfillment of His eternal plans. The men who are
putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its
sweetest and most priceless rewards.
J. Campbell White
The Laymen’s Missionary Movement,
1909.
And let me
tell you, the more labour you have put forth for the
Kingdom of heaven, the more degrees of glory you shall have. As
there are degrees of torment in hell, so of glory in heaven (Matthew 23:14).
As one star differeth from another in glory, so shall
one saint (1 Corinthians 15:41). Though every vessel of mercy shall be full,
yet one may hold more than another.
Thomas Watson
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 260.
None ever
complained of serving God: it was their comfort and their crown on their
death-bed.
Thomas Watson
The Ten Commandments, The First Commandment.
Nothing is
ever wasted in the kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the
unanswered question or the seemingly unanswered prayers. Nothing will be wasted
if we give our lives to God. And if we are willing to be patient until the
grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes nine years or ninety, it will
be worth the wait.
Author Unknown
Come work for
the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long, and the pay is low, but the
retirement benefits are out of this world.
Author Unknown
Serving is
our duty; results are God’s responsibility.
Author
Unknown
We may easily
be too big for God to use, but never too small.
D.L. Moody
God is not
greater if you reverence Him, but you are greater if you serve Him.
Augustine
One of our
greatest rewards as Christians is to serve people. If the result is watching
them draw closer to Christ through the Spirit’s blessing upon God’s Word and our efforts, what more could we possibly ask
for?
Joel R. Beeke
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 123.
You
must not think that the Lord must work harder to use people in little known
places. You must not say, “Well, yes, I guess God could figure out a way to use
even me where I am.” “Aim at My glory,” the Lord says, “and I am using you. Aim
to please Me, and you are My minister, right where you
are, in whatever you are doing!”
Tom Wells
Christian: Take Heart! By Permission of the
Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1987, p. 122.