“But, thou Israel, art my servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend”
Isaiah 42:8
Service unto the Lord is always the offspring of being chosen by God. God’s choice is the result of one who has set their life to be a friend of God. In our religious circles today men feel by being active in service that we become chosen and by being real successful we are to assume that we are a friend of God. True active service is the result (not the cause) of a friendship with God. Friendship with God will always be expressed in active ministry. The reason so few of us are functioning in true active service of God has more to do with our own personal relationship with Him than anything else. Relationship with God is the springboard to all ministry.
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me,
for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry”
I Timothy 1:12
It is required for us to be found faithful in revealing His heart to His people. To know Him is to know the Love He has for His people, a love that passes understanding, a love that motivates ACTS of obedience and humility. It will require us to withdraw if we sense people becoming dependent upon us; it will require an obedience that will risk every earthly relationship in order to serve Him and ultimately cost us every “right” to ourselves in order to know HIM. If we love Him then we must also Love His people with that same Love.
To see and understand the scriptures in any depth requires His Love in our hearts, for Love is the foundation of any true relationship. It is in seeing and understanding HIM that the scriptures come alive with His thoughts and purposes. The understanding that comes from a heart of Love will always surpass that of a knowledge that merely puffs up. The ability to edify another Life can only flow from a heart that has God’s interests in mind.
“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing,
he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
But if any man love God, the same is known of him”
I Corinthians 8:1 – 3
“Agape love is . . . profound concern for the well-being of another, without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process.”
Madeleine L’Engle
