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Busy is a common word.
All the burdens that the Lord gives to us are light and easy. He has not asked us to bear what we cannot bear. It is important to remember this, for this fact will afford us much comfort!
Some Christians carry with them the slogan: "I am too busy. I am really busy." They are laboring day and night, and there is not a moment of free time. It seems as if their burdens are indeed heavy. I am not just speaking of ordinary believers who labor in their jobs. I am also speaking of workers who labor directly in the Lord's work.
It is not the Lord's will for His children to be busy day and night and have no time to be in quietness and solitude, to commune, fellowship, and converse with God. Neither is it the Lord's will for His workers to be fishing day and night without having time to mend their nets.
Let me say an honest word. Many people are busy for nothing, and they are busy unnecessarily! Every child of God should pause to think: "Will my job really not get done if I am not that busy?" I am afraid that many bustlings are needless and unnecessary. Yet we are still confusingly busy. This is either caused by Satan's instigation or by the demand in our environment. How harsh are these two masters: Satan and our environment!
Satan's way is either to pull back or to push forward. If he cannot draw us back and keep us from going on, he will push us and cause us to go to the extreme. I am afraid that many of the bustlings are instigated by him.
Is there a minute that the demands in our environment will abate? Every hour and every minute, the demands stand waiting for us to work. How can we take that as our standard? I know that many times we can clearly get by without being so busy. Our being busy is a result of the agitation of the environment, and it is unnecessary.
The best guide to our work is God's will. Are all the things that have been keeping you busy all day long the things that God wants you to do? If they are not, why are you doing them?
What makes us busy is not the great and important things, but the small and miscellaneous matters. Are all these matters what the Lord wants us to do? If we examine all our works in this way, I am afraid a lot of items will be scratched off from our daily schedule!
Generally speaking, whenever works become numerous and we become busy, our hearts are confused, and we lose the inner peace. "But Martha was being drawn about with much serving" (Luke 10:40). The Lord wants us to maintain our quietness in Him. He does not want us to miss the top blessing.
We have to realize that it is not by much work that we receive the reward. We receive the reward by carrying out God's will faithfully. If something is not the will of God, what benefit is there for us to do it?
It is not because we want to forsake our duty, but because we want to please the Lord more and have more time to fellowship with Him that we do not allow ourselves to be distracted.
In summary, it is better to be busy in prayer than to be busy in work. A person can accomplish more by prayer than by being busy.
Every believer should do his individual preaching, but it is not mandatory that every believer be a full-time preacher. Those who work for the Lord, of course, labor daily in the Lord's work. However, an ordinary believer has to go to work to make his living and to provide for his family.
The person who genuinely works for the Lord realizes that what he does is God's work and that eventually he will gain his reward. This being the case, the more he works, the more he will be interested in his work, and the more he will love his work.
But the ordinary believers have a difficult task. What they are engaged in are occupations of the world, and they fully realize that such works are vain and will pass away. Nevertheless, for their stomach and their family, they have to do their duty. Therefore, there is not much enjoyment in their work.
The most difficult cases are those of the sisters in the Lord. Many sisters love the Lord and are willing to work for the Lord. They may be fervent with a burning heart, and they may want to work for the Lord. But they are wives and mothers; they already have a family. In the family they must do washing, shopping, feeding, and cooking. These things already occupy most of their time. They love to serve the Lord, but they are unable to do so. As a result, many become unhappy.
Furthermore, those who labor for the gospel often feel God's presence, because they do God's work. Those who take care of secular things, however, may hear the children's cry and the crowd's noise; or they may quietly sit in an office or be busy in the kitchen, but in all these environments it seems difficult for anyone to have God's presence.
Nevertheless, is not God the Father of us who believe in Him? How kind, tender, and caring is the word "Father"! Those who preach the gospel are His children, and those who take care of secular things are also His children. Just as He cares for those who preach the gospel, in the same way He cares for those who make a living in the world.
If we want to meet God and to have His presence in all our works, we should remember the word, "Whatever you do,...as to the Lord and not to men" (Col. 3:23). This is the gospel of the believers! We ought to praise God!
He not only accepts the work done for Him directly, but He also gladly accepts the work done by all His children for His sake. "Whatever you do" — any proper work without the mixture of sin — we all can do it as unto the Lord. Therefore, a mother who takes care of her children can count her work as done unto the Lord. A wife who takes care of the household can count what she does as unto the Lord. Laborer, office worker, servant, all can count what they do as unto the Lord. Therefore, we should remember that whatever we do is unto the Lord. Whenever you work — whatever work that may be — please say to the Lord, "O Lord, I do this to You. The reason I do this is because of You!" In this way, all our works in the world will be sanctified to the Lord. In everything we do, we can serve the Lord. However, if the Lord wants us to serve Him solely, we should obey Him.
God's children quite often are lost among the crowd and therefore lose their fellowship with God. How many distracting things there are in our daily life! How much these distractions have affected our spiritual life! The most serious mistake of believers is to associate themselves too much with people and have too little fellowship with God.
People have asked me, "How can I feel the Lord's presence more, and how can I have a better understanding of the Lord's love?" My reply is that you have to fellowship with the Lord all the time. You should be alone, face to face with the Lord, to meditate over His Word and on His deeds. You should ask Him to show you what He wants you to do, and you should tell Him the sorrows and desires of your heart. Peacefully rest in His presence. Lift up your head to the sky, listen to His small voice, and behold His lovely face. At least half an hour each day (the more the better), you should take the Bible with you and go away from your family and folks; you may walk alone in the wilderness, or quietly sit on top of a hill, or stay alone in a certain place, or quietly stay in your room. You should kneel before the Lord and fellowship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus, His Son, in quietness. If you do this, you will see His power manifested in you. His glory, His love, and His holiness will be much more real to you day by day.
I feel the biggest lack among today's believers is their lack of a quiet time with God. Believers care too much for social encounters and for conversation with people. They have neglected their fellowship with God. It would be good if we could say together with Jeremiah, "Because of Your hand I sat alone" (Jer. 15:17).
The high-flying bird is not with the flock. Birds such as the eagle always roam alone in the sky. The more a saint's spiritual life develops and grows, the more he feels he cannot join company with others, or walk together with others in spiritual matters. It seems that besides the Lord, no one can be his company. This is a kind of loneliness of sanctification! These people are like the poet, who was "as a sparrow alone upon the house top" (Psa. 102:7). In their life there is a kind of quietness, serenity, and peace that the worldly people do not have. The presence of the Lord is so real that in their speech, conduct, and thought, it seems there is much "heaven," which makes others reckon them as outsiders and heavenly people. What they breathe is the heavenly uncontaminated air.
Because of such separation from the world, the sanctified life of these ones bears a tremendous impact with them. Wherever they go, they carry such an atmosphere with them, and they touch people with such an atmosphere. "Silence is better than noise."
But this does not mean that they refuse to live together outwardly with other human beings, as the ancient monks did. It means that their spirit cannot love the world. However, because they know more of God, they love people more, and they become more lovable. It is not because they are peculiar. Spiritually such people are like heavenly people, and outwardly they are filled with Christ's love and tenderness. In their daily life they always set aside a certain time when they physically get away from people to seek after spiritual edification in seclusion.
What a blessed life this is!
Our Lord deserves our adoration. Love must have some kind of expression. Consecration is the very beginning and ending of the expression of love. Where there is love, there must be consecration.
Today the need among believers is more love and greater consecration.
However, although love cannot be without consecration, many consecrations can be without love. You may even deliver up your body to be burned, yet there may not be love (1 Cor. 13:3). Every outward deed ought to be motivated by the deep love within a person's heart. Otherwise, outwardly one may be full of acts of consecration, but inwardly he may have left the first love already. The Lord will not accept it. Oh, may the Lord's love cause our hearts to burn, to labor for Him, and to offer ourselves and our goods to the Lord!
One who loves the Lord would not love Him only in words, but also in deeds and sincerity. How feeble is the love that only loves the Lord with the heart and that has no outward expression!
The way believers use their money is the thermometer of their love for the Lord.
How much of your money is used for the Lord? How much is used for yourself, your family, and your children? If you can answer this question, you will know how much you love the Lord.
Is the work of the Lord less important than the need of our living and the expenses of our children's food and education? Who will please the Lord more, the one who gives what is needed for his living, or the one who gives the surplus?
Although most believers are poor, still a few are rich. If a person has a heart to love the Lord, even though he is poor, does he not also have his "two mites?" (Mark 12:42). If you love the Lord, how can you not have an expression of the "two mites"?
To me, the giving of the rich ones is like the crumbs that fall from their table. Do we realize that our Lord was rich, but for our sakes became poor? (2 Cor. 8:9). For this reason, we should also become poor for His sake. The food, clothing, and expenditures of the rich ones have not been reduced for the Lord's sake, and their riches have not been used to help God's work in every place.
If those rich children of God have a heart to love the Lord, they do not have to deny themselves in their daily life that much, and the temple of the Lord will still be filled up. If they have a fervent heart to love the Lord, not only will their dormant, idle, unused money in the bank flow out everywhere for the use of the Lord, but there will be much self-denial also in their daily rightful blessings in order to please God's heart. However, how many know the joy of giving?
This should be true not only among the ordinary believers but also among those who work for the Lord. Although they do not have much income, they should not neglect their expression of love for the Lord. The Levites in the Old Testament still needed to offer the tithe. Although what we do is God's work and what we use is God's money, the Lord still cares much for what we offer in tears.
(But you should be careful that what you offer is for the Lord's use. Today many churches and congregations have left the truth of the Lord! What they preach is not the gospel, and what they do is not according to the will of the Lord. You should be careful not to offer carelessly lest what you offer is not accepted by God, but rather goes to the promotion of heresies.)
Finally, brothers and sisters, if you bury your money, time, or talent, one day in eternity you will regret that you have not used them for the Lord.
