I had a dream that there was a woman boasting that she had been at Wal-Mart for 2 years and was wearing a 10-year experience pin that said 2 years, with the same neck-chain saying the same thing. In the dream I wondered whether they had them for 1 year associates. I had been at Wal-Mart for precisely 1 year Feb. 2nd.
When do you know that you've done something for God? When you've had something to boast about? You know the Lord doesn't glory in your boastings. It kills us that the Lord doesn't get the glory: the healthiest thing for you is for the Lord to get the glory, He glorifies you anyway and never exhalts you a degree lower than He has love for you, I'm sure of that.
But when I've said, "I've travelled to 70 countries and evangelized for 70 years..." Is this the sign of great discipleship? When I've built a multimillion-dollar establishment to handle 5 thousand people to share the Gospel with: does that make me a better disciple?
Fact is, you can't measure your love for Christ in a track record. Are you doing the will of the Lord NOW? I know I'm pleasing God when I'm pleasing God. Not when I look back, but when I look up, NOW. It doesn't matter to the Lord that I've done those things and that I did them for Him, yet I wrestle in prayer over a secret sin. He doesn't care that I'm doing the reasonable service of His faithful servant, and yet I might miss one the mark in one part, or I say, "I hate this. I quit."
Thank the Lord that's not me!
But the Lord told me something... He is never going to forget our labor of love. He wont forget. He knows, even though I might snuff out my right hand's ability to remember what it did for the Lord, and my left hand hasn't a clue. So:
"For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which yyou have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister."
"And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:"
"That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
Those promises as I understand are the hope of God. Hope not in the English sense of the word, but our events that we expectantly wait on. That's where we can anchor our faith. In God - Trust in God!
