Be Earnest

“I will not eat until I have told my errand.” (Gen. 24:33)

Just as Abraham’s servant had a sense of urgency in connection with his mission, so should we. This does not mean we must race around in all directions at once. It does not mean that we must do everything in nervous haste. But it does mean that we should give ourselves to the task before us as a matter of top priority.

We should adopt the attitude expressed in Robert Frost’s lines:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep.

Amy Carmichael captured the spirit when she wrote: “The vows of God are on me. I may not stay to play with shadows or pluck earthly flowers till I my work have done and rendered up an account.”

In another place, she wrote:

Only twelve short hours—O never

Let the sense of urgency

Die in us, Good Shepherd, ever

Let us search the hills with Thee.

It is said that Charles Simeon kept a picture of Henry Martyn in his study, and that everywhere he went in the room, it seemed that Martyn was looking at him and saying, “Be earnest, be earnest; don’t trifle, don’t trifle.” And Simeon would reply, “Yes, I will be in earnest; I will, I will be in earnest; I will not trifle, for souls are perishing, and Jesus is to be glorified.”

Hear the urgency in the words of the intrepid Apostle Paul: “This one thing I do… I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13, 14).

And did not our blessed Savior live with a sense of urgency. He said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished” (Luke 12:50).

There is no excuse for Christians to rest on their oars.

( by Manorama)