Ministering to the Lord 1975

who forgive us all thine iniquities, who heal us all thy diseases, who redeem us thy life from destruction, who crown us thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy, who satisfy us thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. No question as we study the words of our Lord in the Gospels, that he expects us to get things done. For instance, if we look in John 15, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Or over in Matthew 25, And he who had received five talents came forward bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I made five talents more. And his master said, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

When Jesus called Peter, he didn't call him to just be a mystic sitting on top of a mountain for the rest of his life. He called him to be a figure of men. And when Jesus called Paul, he didn't call him to be a monk pacing around in circles in the cell of some monastery someplace.

He said, You're going to go out before Gentiles and kings. You're going to bring men from darkness to light, which is in the power of vision. For God, my Father, never was so much accomplished by so few in so short a time.

And yet, we seem to miss so often when we stand back and admire and be in awe of those things which were done by our apostolic brothers and sisters. We miss the fact that they went about their work in a way very different from the way most so-called Christian workers accomplish these days. They didn't formulate a plan, then appoint committees, and then raise money, and then set up a structure, and then launch some new Christian enterprise.

And they would, I am quite sure, be absolutely sickened. He which is me has seen the Father, drawn near to me, and you have drawn near to the Father. Now for some time, most of us are aware of the fact that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus has been calling us to come away from all these scattered, busy things that we've been up to, and learn first to minister to Him, knowing that when we have learned to minister to Him, we will accomplish more in five minutes, by way of healing the world, than before we accomplished in five years or perhaps even fifty.

Then of course we say, how can I minister to God? What do I have to offer God that He doesn't already have? And the answer is, there is one thing which only you can give God, and that's your blessing. You can't yank that out of you. You have to give it to Him.

One simple thing that any child can do that marks the beginning of any kind of ministry to God, to cause all that is within us to start to bless Him. Oh, you think you're too busy? You've got more important things to do than bless God. What about His angels, which excel in His praise, which do His will, hearkening to the voices of His Word? What do they do? They're blessing God all the time.

His ministers of His, His hosts, that do His pleasure, constantly blessing God. All God's works in all places of His dominion, the trees, the flowers, the throttling spaces, the silent rivers, the suns and the stars, all the time. Doing nothing but blessing God.

Now the author of Psalm 103 understands this well, and understands that there is no possible way that he can minister even to God.