YOUR PLACE IN GOD’S
PLAN
Text: “And I
sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work,
so that I
cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave
it, and come
down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3.
…………………………………
When ever a man or woman stands up to right a wrong
there is opposition. No one can hope to
introduce reforms and avoid battle.
Reformers of every age have found themselves arrayed against a host of
enemies whose one thought has ever been to perpetuate the wrong out of which
they have prospered. Luther and Wesley,
Elizabeth Fry and Wilberforce found their efforts to liberate men were
violently resisted. And the child of God
is not spared from demonic attack as he seeks to fulfil his part in the great
work of complete liberation which God is making known through His Church.
The experiences of Nehemiah who purposed to rebuild
the wall of
Every Christian has a Divine Task to perform. He has a part to play in God’s great scheme,
and however, humble it may seem, however insignificant we may estimate its
worth, the truth is, it is invaluable to God.
Realise your task in God’s Plan is a great task and that its performance
is your first responsibility and no amount of enticement will be able to draw you
from it. You will say, as Nehemiah said,
when his enemies sought to dissuade him from fulfilling God’s purpose, “I am
doing a great work so that I cannot come down” or leave it. And do not let threats or blandishments turn
you from the path of duty.
The enemy will do all he can to turn you from the work
God has called you to do. But you should
bear in mind that the very effort of the enemy proves the value of the work you
are doing. You may not know the full
implications of your task – its identical part in the Divine Plan – but you ARE
playing a part in that plan and your obedience or disobedience will effect
every other member of the Body of Christ as well as yourself.
“I am doing a great work”, said Nehemiah. Any work for the Master is a great work. Whether it be preaching to a thousand or
preaching to one; whether it be a public
meeting or a private affair between you and another; whether it be a Sunday
School class or training the baby at home; whether it be seen and known of many
or known only to God as in secret prayer; whatever your task for God it is a
great task. It is for Eternity.
David well knew this for he said, “I had rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness”. Yes, a doorkeeper’s job –
truly a very important if not elevated job! – is more wonderful when it is done
for God that to being feted by the ungodly.
Many famous men have lived and died who never knew our Saviour. Not one of them has done a greater task than
the humblest Christian who has been instrumental in bringing one soul to
Christ. As Fletcher of Madeley said, “If
you should live to preach the gospel for forty years, and be the instrument of
saving only one soul, it will be worth all your labours”.
But Nehemiah made it quite clear that he was not only
doing a great work but it was a work requiring all his energy. Half-hearted Christians never were much
use. Compromise with the world never
benefits the soul. There may be outward
rewards and temporal gains but the final adjudication will prove the gain was
illusory and the loss was real. “I
cannot come down”, said Nehemiah. To
compromise with the world is to fall from Christian steadfastness. We have been lifted to heavenly places and
seated with Christ in His exalted place, and to yield to any persuasion to take
a lesser place is surely the height of folly.
“I cannot come down”. I cannot
come down to your level. I cannot lower
the standard and remain loyal to my Lord and to the task which he has given
me. I will, I must, remain where I
am. Often seemingly lawful invitations
and opportunities for advancement are strewn across our path by the enemies of
our souls. The wisest plan is to ignore
all suggestions that demand any measure of compromise for you can be sure that
to compromise means to lower the standard and that will spell disaster and
distress for your soul which may linger long in memory. “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot
come down”. That is the best answer to
all who would persuade us to follow some other path.
Next, we see a further cause for continuing faithfully
in our appointed task. “Why should the
work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you? Have you ever realised that whatever the task
God has given you to do it is one peculiarly suitable to you in the very
circumstances in which you are placed?
Many a Christian is wont to bewail the environment in which he lives as
being detrimental to working out the worked-in salvation. But if you change the conditions you alter
the whole situation and policy, and the task will be impossible of
fulfilment. A stonemason would not take
his tools and stones into the drawing room to chip and carve and inscribe. He does that in the workshop specially fitted
for the job. Nor would a fuller attempt
to carry on his work in coalmine. You,
exactly where you are as placed by God, can fulfil the great work God has
appointed you to do. If you evade your
duty another may attempt to carry out your task but whatever the result it
cannot be just what it would have been had you performed it yourself.
Therefore we should take a restock of our personal
position and see if we really are in the place God wants us to be and if we are
in that place, are we doing the work God wants us to do? It does not matter whether the world applauds
or disdains. You are doing a great work
when you are obeying God’s Will. And
though men may never see or record your faithfulness, remember – God sees, God
records, and God rewards. We read in
Ecclesiastes that there was once a poor man who lived in a city besieged by a
great king. The great men were unable to
offer any deliverance, yet that same poor man by his wisdom delivered the
city. “Yet no man remembered that same
poor man”. No one remembered what a
great work he had done. But this we do
know – God remembered and God recorded.
Not only in His Heavenly archives where the deeds of men are for ever
inscribed, but in that Holy Book of God’s Revelation to mankind – and that
alone is a great reward and a great honour.
Let us then, continue in our allotted task thinking
not of what we appear before men but of what we appear before God. And if our lives are right with God we shall
have no regrets about our influence upon men, for he that serves God
wholeheartedly serves mankind the best, and the reward will eternal.
Leslie
Barrowcliff. 6.11.1943.