HOW TO BE USEFUL TO THE LORD
CHAPTER TWO
WEEK 1 - SATURDAY
Bible Reading: Mt 5:1; 8:23; 9:10; 13:12, 10, 36; 16:13; 17:1-2; 24:1-3; Jd 7:4-8
Read and Pray: “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him;" (Mt 5:1)
LEARNING TO PAY THE PRICE IN DAILY LIFE
TRUE SEEKING TAKES PLACE IN DAILY LIFE
At one point or another, we all make the decision to seek spiritual growth and to be useful to the Lord. However, seeking by our own decision can often become a matter of formality and thus incompatible with reality. True seeking must take place in every aspect of daily life.
You can enjoy the view of the mountains and rivers on your trips while seeking. You can talk with a friend about all kinds of things while paying the price. We should pay the price and follow the Lord in every aspect of daily life.
There’s no way to know if the Lord ever presided over a formal meeting while He was on earth because He was not bound by formalities. On the contrary, He led the disciples to follow through with daily life. Even while traveling, they still followed Him (Mt 5:1; 8:23; 9:10; 13:12, 10, 36; 16:13; 17:1-2; 24:1-3). In the Old Testament, Gideon and his followers were tested in daily life in the matter of how they drank water (Jd 7:4-8). This should be the principle of spiritual seeking.
We should not only pray when we enter a room, nor preach and work only when we enter a meeting place and step up to the pulpit. If we pray, preach, or work only in those moments, we are merely fulfilling religious formalities.
We can seek God at any time, whether we are on the mountain or by the sea, on the road or at home. It is in daily living that people can detect whether we are truly seeking the Lord and whether we can truly be used by Him.
If we cannot work for the Lord in daily life, we certainly cannot work for Him at scheduled times. The true worker is the one who can provide spiritual help and provision for others in each of their movements and actions throughout the course of common daily life. Only that is reality.
Our living must be genuine, not religious. Every person and thing we come into contact with and meet every day, in every moment and place, are opportunities for us to pay the price and seek to be useful to the Lord.
A BASIC PRICE TO PAY
One basic price we need to learn to pay in daily seeking is that the younger ones should receive help from the older ones, who, in turn, should do their best to help the younger ones. In order to be manifested before the Lord as those who truly seek spiritual growth, we must pay attention to these two issues. On one hand, we must do everything possible to receive help from those who can provide it, and on the other, we must do everything possible to help those in need. True seeking is this.
However, what usually happens is that the younger ones seek out the younger ones and the older ones seek out the older ones. This is neither seeking nor paying the price. This most likely happens because of self-preference. Seeking only those who are your age to talk intimately with is not paying the price, but rather tied to preference.
You should put an end to this practice of spending time only with those whose tastes and temperaments are like yours. It is because of the unwillingness to pay the price that the younger ones do not seek the older ones. It is also because of this unwillingness that the older ones do not seek the younger ones. This kind of situation is, most of the time, caused by being in the flesh and unwilling to deny the "I".
In the first chapter of the Song of Solomon, she who seeks follows the Lord, but still has to tend to the goats (v. 8). If we neglect the younger ones, we are not very useful to the Lord. The older ones should seek to help the younger ones because they feel the responsibility to do so. The younger ones should seek the older ones because they feel the need to receive help. This is what proper service consists of.
We should not wait for the meeting time to serve. On the contrary, we should serve while working in the office, doing housework, and even away from home, traveling in our free time. This can be compared to a mother who cannot forget her children, whether she is at home or away, at work, taking care of some matter, or engaging in recreational activities. The true lessons of seeking are learned in daily life, and the true moment of service happens in regular moments.
Enjoy more: Hymn S-73
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