Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Galatians 6:9
Many start well in the Christian life, with rich hope and glowing ardour, who soon fail. They become discouraged at the hardness and toilsomeness of the way or at the little impression they are able to make on the world, and grow weary. . . .
There are two ways of becoming weary in well-doing. We may be weary in it or of it. And there is an immense difference in the two experiences. The best men may grow weary in their service. Human nature is frail. We are not angels with exhaustless powers of endurance. But we are to guard against growing weary of our great work, as sometimes we are tempted even to be.
"What is the use of serving God?" cries one. "I have tried for years to be faithful to Him, and to live as He would have me to live, but somehow I do not succeed in life. I have no blessing on my work. My business does not prosper. Then there is my neighbour, who never prays, who disregards the precepts of God's Word, who desecrates the Lord's Day, whose life is unjust, hard, false and selfish. And yet he gets along far better than I do. What is the profit of serving God?" Many a good man has felt thus in his heart, even if he has not spoken his thoughts aloud.
To all this it may be replied that God's years are long and He is never in a hurry. As a good Christian man said to a scoffer who boasted that his crops were good though he had never prayed for God to bless them, while the Christian's, after all his praying, had failed, "The Lord does not always settle His accounts with men in the month of October." Besides, worldly prosperity is not always promised, nor is it always a blessing. There come many times in very man's life when trial is better than prosperity. A little with Heaven's benefit is better than great gains poisoned by the curse of God. . . .
Everything about the Christian life is difficult of attainment. In the ardour of his youthful zeal and the glow of his yet untried and unbaffled hope, the young Christian is apt to feel that everything is going to yield at once to his strokes. He looks for immediate results in every case. He has large hope and enthusiasm, but has not strong faith. He begins, and soon discovers his mistake. . . . Many people reject the blessings God is sending to their doors. We come to them laden with rich spiritual things, and they turn away to chase some vanishing illusion. We tell them of Christ, and they turn to listen to the siren song that would lure them on the rocks of ruin. That this is disheartening cannot be denied.
But does not God behold our work? Does He not see our toil and our tears? Does He not witness our faithfulness in His service? . . . . "But men are ungrateful." Very true. You minister to those who are in need, taking the bread from your own plate to feed their hunger, denying yourself necessary things to give to them; you visit and care for them in sickness; you spend time and money to relieve them. Then, so soon as the trouble is past and they need your money or help no longer, they turn away from you as if you had wronged them. Almost rarest of human virtues is true gratitude. The one may return, but the nine come no more. . . . Grateful words are like cups of cold water to one who is weary and faint; and surely it is fit that men should be grateful.
But suppose they are not. Suppose years of kindness are forgotten in a moment. . . . Though the recipient of your charity turned out an impostor, yet, if it was bestowed in Christ's name and for His sake, He will say at the last, "Ye did it unto Me." . . .
Sometimes the results of work on human lives may be seen in the expansion and beautifying of character, in the conversion of the ungodly, in the comforting of sorrow . . . and yet much of our work must be done in simple faith, and perhaps in heaven it will be seen that the best results of our lives have been from their unconscious influences and our most fruitful efforts those we considered in vain.
The old water-wheel turns around and round outside the wall. It seems to be idle work that it is doing. You see nothing accomplished. But its shaft runs through the mill-wall and turns a great system of machinery there, and makes bread to feed many a hungry mouth. So we soil away, many of us, and oftentimes see no rewards or fruits. But if we are true to God, we are making results somewhere for His glory and the good of others. . . . No true work for Christ can ever fail. Somewhere, sometime, somehow there will be results. We need not be discouraged or disheartened, for in due time we shall reap if we faint not.
But what if we faint?
Dr J. R. Miller, Week-Day Religion, 1894
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