Chapter 8: Praise, Love, and Service

The Spirit of Praise

"Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!" (Psalm 103:1). Wake up, my memory, and find material for the song. Tell what God has done for me in days gone by. Fly back, my thoughts, to childhood — sing of the mercies of my earliest days. Review my youth and its early blessings. Sing of that patient grace which followed my wanderings and endured my rebellions. Bring before my eyes that glad hour when first I knew the Lord, and tell over again the matchless story of His mercy.

Wake up, my judgment, and give rhythm to the music. Come forward, my understanding, and weigh His lovingkindness in the balance. See if you can count the fine dust of His mercies. See if you can estimate the unsearchable riches which God has given you in His indescribable gift of Christ Jesus. Recount His eternal love to you. Add up the treasures of that everlasting covenant which He made on your behalf, "ordered in all things and secure" (2 Samuel 23:5). Sing aloud of that divine wisdom which planned, of that love which designed, and of that grace which carried out the work of your redemption.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul!" For does not all nature around me praise Him? If I were silent, I would be an exception to the universe. Does not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of Armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the forests on their summits wave in worship? Does not the lightning write His name in letters of fire across the midnight darkness? Does not the whole earth have a voice? And shall I — can I — be silent? "Bless the LORD, O my soul."

Love to Christ

Do you have a friend at court — at heaven's court? Is the Lord Jesus your friend? Can you say that you love Him, and has He ever revealed Himself in love to you? To be able to say "Christ is my friend" is one of the sweetest things in the world. The love of Christ does not drive out the love of family, but it sanctifies our human love and makes it sweeter still. Earthly love is sweet, but it must pass away. And what will you do if you have no wealth but the wealth that fades, and no love but the love that dies, when death shall come?

Oh, to have the love of Christ! You can take that across the river of death with you. You can wear it as your jewel in heaven and set it as a seal upon your hand, for His love is "strong as death" and "mightier than the grave" (Song of Solomon 8:6).

The First Lesson

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. The person who has not first been taught that he knows nothing cannot learn rightly. It is a good thing to feel that we are only beginning to learn, and to be willing to submit our hearts to the teaching of God's Spirit, to be guided in everything by Him. The prayer of the awakened soul is, "Teach me." We become as little children when God begins to deal with us.

Danger of Prosperity

High places and God's praise seldom go together. A full cup is not easily carried without spilling. The one who stands on a pinnacle needs a clear head and much grace.

Idleness

Some temptations come to the hard-working, but all temptations attack the idle. Idle Christians are not so much tempted by the devil as they tempt the devil to tempt them. Idleness sets the door of the heart ajar and invites Satan to come in. But if we are busy from morning till night, if Satan gets in, he must break through the door. Under sovereign grace, and next to faith, there is no better shield against temptation than obedience to the command: "Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).

Grace

Grace is always grace, but it never seems so gracious as when we see it brought to our unworthy selves.

Obtaining Promises

God sometimes gives His people fresh promises "by faith" just before a trial is about to come upon them. It was so with Elijah. God said to him, "Go to the Brook Cherith; I have commanded the ravens to feed you there" (1 Kings 17:4). This was at the beginning of the famine. There he stayed, and God fulfilled the promise, for by faith Elijah had received it. Acting on faith, still dependent on God, he remained at Cherith, and as the result of this faith, God gave him a fresh promise: "Arise, go to Zarephath — I have commanded a widow there to provide for you" (1 Kings 17:9). The faith that received the first promise earned the honor of a second.

So it is with us. If we have had a little promise and up until now have relied on it — if we have lived on it and made it the support of our souls — surely God will give us another and a greater one. And so, from promise to promise, speeding on our way, we will find the promises to be rungs of the ladder that Jacob saw, the top of which reaches to heaven. Doubt the promise you already have, and you cannot expect God to increase His revelation to your soul. Be fearful and unbelieving about the promise that was laid on your heart yesterday, and you will not have a new one tomorrow. But act in simple faith upon what God has already given you, and you will go from strength to strength, receiving grace upon grace and promise upon promise.

Sympathy

Sympathy is especially a Christian's duty. Consider what the Christian is, and you will agree that if every other person were selfish, he should be selfless. If there were nowhere else a heart with compassion for the needy, there should be one found in every Christian. The Christian is a "king" — and it is not fitting for a king to be consumed with caring only for himself. Was Alexander ever more royal than when, while his troops were suffering from thirst, he pushed aside a bowl of the precious water that a soldier offered him, saying it was not fitting for a king to drink while his men were thirsty? He would rather share their hardship with them.

You whom God has made kings and princes — reign royally over your own selfishness, and act with the generous spirit that befits the royal family of the universe. You are sent into the world to be deliverers of others — but how will you be so if you care only for yourselves? It is yours to be lights; and does not a light consume itself while it scatters its rays into the thick darkness? Is it not your calling and privilege to have it said of you, as of your Master — "He saved others; Himself He cannot save" (Matthew 27:42)?

Endure Hardship

Soldier of Christ, you will have to fight hard battles. There is no bed of ease for you; there is no riding to heaven in a carriage. The rough road must be walked; mountains must be climbed; rivers must be crossed; dragons must be fought; giants must be killed; difficulties must be overcome; and great trials must be endured. It is not a smooth road to heaven; those who have gone but a very few steps on it have found it to be rough and rugged.

Yet it is delightful. It is the most wonderful journey in all the world — not because it is easy in itself, but only because of the company, because of the sweet promises on which we lean, because of our Beloved who walks with us through all the rough and thorny paths of this vast wilderness. Christian soldiers, expect conflict: "Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you" (1 Peter 4:12). As truly as you are a child of God, your Savior has left you this legacy: "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). Yet remember that this "tribulation" is the way to enter the kingdom. Therefore, "endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3).

Usefulness

Christ, my Master, went about doing good, and if you would walk with Him, you must go about on the same mission.

The Church and the World

Christian people ought to live in such a way that any comparison between them and the world would be pointless. It should not be a comparison but a contrast. No scale of degrees should be possible: the believer should be a direct and obvious contradiction to the unbeliever. The life of a saint should be altogether above and apart from the life of a sinner. We should compel our critics not to admit that moral people are good, and Christians a little better — but that while the world is darkness, we should clearly be light; and while the world lies in the grip of the evil one, we should plainly be of God and overcome the temptations of that evil one.

As far apart as the poles are life and death, light and darkness, purity and sin. There should be as much difference between the worldly person and the Christian as between hell and heaven, between destruction and eternal life. The purity of our character should be such that people must recognize we are of another and superior race. If we were what we claim to be, there would be no difficulty in telling the Christian from the worldly person. But, sadly, the Church is so mixed that we must temper our boasting, and cannot celebrate our character as we would.

Oh, for the time when our lives will reflect heaven, and the shallow life of the worldly will be rebuked by our Christlike character! God grant us more and more to be clearly "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people," that we may "proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

The Fight of Faith

Like the Spartans, every Christian is born a warrior. It is his destiny to be attacked; it is his duty to attack. Part of his life will be spent in defensive warfare. He will have to earnestly defend "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). He will have to resist the devil. He will have to stand against all his schemes, and having done all, still to stand. He will, however, be a poor Christian if he only acts on the defensive; he must be one who goes out against his enemies. He must be able to say with David, "I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (1 Samuel 17:45). He must wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He must have weapons for his warfare — not physical — but "mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). He must not be content to live safely in the fortress, well-guarded, but he must go out to attack the castles of the enemy and drive the opposition out of the land.

But there are many ways in which the Christian may largely forget his warrior calling. And sadly, there are not a few who, if they are Christians at all, certainly know very little of that daily warfare to which the Captain of our salvation calls His followers. They have a soft religion — a faith that avoids opposition, a reed-like faith which bends before every wind, unlike that cedar of godliness which stands tall in the middle of the storm and claps its branches in the hurricane for the very joy of triumph, though the earth is in turmoil all around. Such people lack the faith that shares the glory. Though saved, their names will not be found written among the courageous ones who, for our Great Commander's sake, are willing to suffer the loss of all things and go outside the camp bearing His reproach.

Let us never be content with such unworthy ease, but earnestly and boldly fight the Lord's battles. Is it a small thing for a follower of Christ to be losing the immortal honor of serving the Lord? What will people not do to win fame? And shall we, when it is right at our door, lazily turn aside and throw our glory to the ground? Let us be up and active, for it is no small thing to be losing the honor of a faithful servant of Christ.