God's Work in God's Way

When we appear before our brethren or the world, we shall find ours to be the "strong confidence" which is the portion of all who have to do with God in secret. The "Goliaths" shall be slain—no doubt of that. God's work shall be done—no doubt of that either. We need not fear that God will not use us. It is only by being in God's school that He can use us—not perhaps in the dazzling way that the world and many Christians admire, but in His own way, in a way that shall most honor Him.
The Lord will make all these things clear to us while we are alone with Himself. It is only then we really do God's work; it is only then we do it in God's way, and only then we do the very things God has fitted us for, and at the very time appointed of the Father.
What secrets we get from the Lord when alone with Himself! If we do not care for the secret of His presence, what does He care for all our boasted service? It is ourselves He wants, and it is only service flowing out of the joy of His presence that is worthy of the name. It is only such service that shall stand the fire of the judgment seat, and bring joy that we have not run in vain, nor labored in vain in the day of Christ.
May each one of us have an open ear to the Master's voice when He says to us, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place," remembering that though He were the Son of the Father, we find Him time after time departing into a solitary place, and there praying, although in doing so, He had to get up a great while before day. The faithful witness Himself, as well as His faithful and trusted servants in every age, required a desert experience-a wilderness teaching-alone with God. And so do we.
W. Shaw