Am I Convinced By Christ?
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not . . . , but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven. - Luke 10:19,20
<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Luke+10%3A19%2C20>
Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don't rejoice in successful service, but
rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work
is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has
used you. You never can measure what God will do through you if you are
rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then
whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is
pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He
does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by
salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put
there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around
you, you will fulfil God's purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God
is in the light.
The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people
who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test,
then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of
the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God
does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds
in a man's life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is
bringing many sons to glory.
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Victoria E Gilkerson
