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• Jan. 26, 2009
Doing the Lord's work
As I said before, I am reading the life story of Amy Carmichael right now. I came across a statement from her that really went straight to my heart and I wanted to share it with you. As a bit of background, in case you know as little about her as I did before I began this book, Amy Carmichael was a very active, dilligent, missionary. She chafed at being asked to be still ever, when there were so many around her who needed Christ. Eventually God called her to rescue many girls from being given to the temples in India. At first she could not believe God wanted her to give up going from village to village just to care for these children. Here are her own words:
"'Could it be right,' Amy had asked, 'to turn from so much that might be of profit and become just nursemaids?' The answer was yes. It is not the business of the servant to decide which work is great, which is small, which important or unimportant - he is not greater than his master. 'If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love,' Amy wrote after many years of such 'unspiritual work.'"
When I read this I was reminded again of how skewed our vision gets at times. We are so wrong focused that we forget that God told us "whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all for the glory of God." He didn't ever say that only those who are pastors, missionaries or evangelists would bring Him glory. He has given us all a specific way to serve Him, and to desire more or less than what he has given us to do is for the servant to instruct the master.
I hope that you are encouraged by this. If God has called you to be a wife and mother, then God is glorified by your willing service to Him. If you are a painter, plumber or mechanic, God is glorified by your willing service to Him. If you are a pastor, deacon, missionary or sunday school teacher, God is glorified by your willing service to Him. God is glorified, not when we are doing the most interesting type of service that we can think of, but when we are doing what He has placed before us with a willing and humble heart.
Shannon
