Daily Digest #141

If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. —1 Timothy 5:8

Let me share to you the September 11th entry of My Utmost for His Highest (read below). Each of us is called everyday to do a task for His purpose and glory. We perform different kinds of service to people around us, which some may have already developed into a habit. Depending on the weight of what we do, we often categorize the sacrificial from the non-sacrificial. We say we sacrifice when we give up something that we love (like our time, or our "freedom") for the sake of another. But how much of it comes truly from the heart, and not just out of obligation? How often does it bring inner joy? Have we show enough mercy and compassion? Do we do it with love?

For this let us pray. May we put the faith we claim into practice. May we pour our hearts into everything that we do -- may it be in our regular jobs, our daily chores, missionary work, caring for the sick or elderly, or tending our children -- with love and joy, as if doing it for the Lord. May we learn the true meaning of sacrifice. Pray always.


Missionary Weapons

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet —John 13:14

Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.

The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.

Jesus said, "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you" (13:15). Notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated once you realize that this is actually His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now He says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what He has exhibited to us.

Do you find yourself responding by saying, "Oh, I will do all that once I’m out on the mission field"? Talking in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield--you will be killed while trying to do it.

We have to go the "second mile" with God (see Matthew 5:41 ). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps. Then we say, "Well, I’ll just wait until I get closer to the next big crisis in my life." But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.