Do we sufficiently cultivate this unselfish desire to be all for Jesus, and to do all for His pleasure? Or are we conscious that we principally go to Him for our own sakes, or at best for the sake of our fellow creatures? How much of prayer there is that begins and ends with the creature, forgetful of the privilege of giving joy to the Creator.
The consecration of all to our Master, far from lessening our power to impart, increases both our power and our joy in ministration. The five loaves and two fishes of the disciples, first given up to and blessed by the Lord, were abundant supply for the needy multitudes, and grew, in the act of distribution, into a store of which twelve hampers full of fragments remained when all were fully satisfied.
True devotion will rather ask to be allowed to give, and will count as loss all which may not be given up for the Lord’s sake—“I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”
It is comparatively easy to lay the sacrifice on the altar that sanctities the gift, but it requires divine compulsion—the cords of love—to retain it there.
I scarcely knew whether she or I was the more blessed—so real, so constant, so satisfying was His presence, so deep my delight in the consciousness that His will was being done; and that that will, which was utterly crushing me, was good, was wise, was best.
Taylor, J. H. (n.d.). Hudson Taylor’s Choice Sayings: A Compilation from His Writings and Addresses (pp. 8–9). China Inland Mission; Morgan & Scott. (Public Domain)
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