Meet for the Master's Use
"Serving the Lord with all lowliness" Acts 20:19 (New Trans)
Oh, to be but emptier, lowlier Mean, unnoticed and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier, Filled with Christ, and Christ alone;
Naught of earth to cloud the glory,
Naught of self the light to dim,
Telling forth the wondrous story,
Emptied -- to be filled with Him !
P.G.
Every one of us that has been called of God finds more or less that he is isolated unto Him that called Him ... Christ was apart to God.
Surely in our Father's house not those who have gone on well in this world, as you might have done ... but those who have been called on service, will have most joy in their retrospect.
If one could but be nothing, He might use us more. The carpenter can use his saw, or file, or hammer without fear of its boasting of the work being its own. If God used His children without a good deal of discipline to them accompanying they would be spoilt and boast in what was wrought as being theirs and not His. He loves us too much for that.
The eye that is most anointed will not be the first to see failure in others, and the soul that knows most of walking under the yoke with the Master will not be the first to undertake the putting right, according to its own mind, of what halts and limps in others.
Prayer is sure work and the harbinger of blessing ... and often what sets us a praying for more is a first dropping of His rich love and grace.
Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true ... I do not think one need to be unhappy about it ... But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations. (Matthew 5:11, 12)
We are but leaden pipes to let the water down from the cistern above --- dry till it flows in above and dry if it ceases to flow in . It is good to remember this at all times and to walk humbly in the truth of it ... I found it useful (the remembrance of it) in praying before speaking. Oft not a word seemed with me to give, and the spreading out before the Lord His estimate of the worthiness of His Son to be spoken about, and His will that He should be announced, has been followed by a full fresh flow of water of the word of life.
Believe me, you can only plead with God as you know Christ. He alone is the channel by which God can bless ... The power of intercession is a great thing to the servant of God.
It ennobles a Christian immensely to know and to feel that he is a channel through which the life of Christ is to flow out.
Happy the person who has an empty vessel and God ever ready to fill. Unhappy they who have no empty vessel ... I doubt whether many know the sweetness of going into the presence of God as a channel or pipe to be filled in order to bring out what is wanted for others, saying, "I have got the ear and heart of Christ".
Which is most worthy to occupy our thoughts --- the littleness of our love or the fulness of that love which passes knowledge ?
--- G.V.W.
