Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.
Colossians 3:23
A great deal is said in the Scriptures about serving the Lord. But how are we to serve Him? What kind of work comes under the head of service?
There are wrong impressions regarding this. All suppose that they are serving the Lord when they engage in specifically religious exercises. After his day's work a man goes to a prayer meeting. He regards that as serving, but does not think of calling his long day's secular work by the same . . . designation. . . .
The question, then, arises, How are we to perform these common secular duties so as to make them pleasing to Christ as ministries to Him?
First of all, our lives must be truly consecrated to Christ. If they are not, the most magnificent services will not be accepted. Then, the work we do must be the work to which He calls us as the time. Something else than our present duty, though requiring more toil and appearing more splendid, will not be pleasing while present duty is left unperformed. A missionary journey to Joppa will not be accepted as a substitute for a similar visit to Ninevah. . . .
Then, the work we do must itself be pure and good work in a lawful and proper calling. No formal consecration can make any wrong-doing pleasing to the Master.
Then, again, we must do our work well. Work that we slight or do dishonestly is not acceptable service. This phase of Christian duty is sometimes overlooked. Those who would not utter a false word or commit a dishonest act will yet perform their work carelessly or imperfectly. The principles of religion apply just as well to the carpenter's trade or to the tailor's or to the house-keeper's work as to the business of the banker or the merchant. It is just as really dishonest to sew up a seam that will rip or to put inferior material or bad workmanship into a building as it is to use a short yard-stick or light weights or to adulterate coffee or sugar. God is not pleased with any work unless it is the very best that we can render.
The old cathedral-builders understood this when they finished every smallest detail of their stupendous fabrics as conscientiously as the most massive parts. The gilded spires, far away in the clouds, which no human eye could ever inspect, were made with as much care as the altar-mouldings or the carings on the great doors, which all could see. . . . So we must work if we would render pleasing service to the Lord. The builder must build as conscientiously in the parts that are to be covered from sight as in those that will be most conspicuous. The dress-maker must sew as faithfully the hidden seams as the most showy. I do not believe that we can ever serve Christ acceptably by any kind of shams or deceits. . . .
But amid these common secular duties come countless opportunities of serving in another sense by active ministry to others. This is always pleasing to Christ; indeed, He puts Himself behind every one who needs help or comfort, and accepts all deeds of benevolence and true charity as done to Himself. . . . We are not to wait for opportunities to do great things--not to keep watching for some splendid thing which by is conspicuous importance may win for us the applause of men--but are to do always, moment by moment, the thing that comes to our hand. It may be to speak a cheering word to one who is disheartened, to join in a child's play, to mend a broken toy, to send a few flowers made more fragrant by your love into a sick-room, or write a letter of condolence or sympathy. It is the thing, small or great, which our hands find at the moment to do.
Or, our part in serving may often be to wait. There are times when we can do nothing more. . . . Then, quiet, submissive, unmurmuring patiences pleases Christ just as well as ever did the most intense activities in other days.
Or it may be in suffering that we are called to serve. There come occasions in the life of each one of us when the best thing for us is darkness and pain, when we can do most for the cause of Christ by suffering for His sake. . . .
Thus we see that serving the Lord is not the privilege and pleasure of a few rare hours alone, but embraces the whole wide range of life and work and takes in all our relationships to home, to friends, to humanity, to business, to pleasure. if the heart be right, our whole life becomes one unbroken series of services rendered to the Lord.
The vital point in this whole matter is the motive that underlies it all. . . . The moralist does right things, but without any reference to Christ, not confessing Him or loving Him; the Christian does the same things, but does them because the Master wants him to do them. As one had beautifully said, "What we can do for God is little or nothing, but we must do our little nothings for His glory." This is the motive that, filling our hearts, makes even drudgery divine because it is done for Christ. It may be but to sweep a room or rock an infant to sleep, or teach a ragged child, or plane a board; but if it is done as unto the Lord, it will be owned and accepted. . . .
It is always easy to toil for one we love. And when the heart is full of love for the Master, it throws a wondrous warmth and tenderness about all duty. Things that would be very austere or repulsive merely as duties become very easy when done for Him. . . .
(W)ork done for Christ endures forever. A life of simple consecration leaves a trace of imperishable beauty on everything it touches. Not great deeds alone, but the smallest, the obscurest, the most prosaic, write their record in fadeless lines.
We need to have but one care--that we live our one little life truly unto the Lord.
Dr J. R. Miller, Week-Day Religion, 1897
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