If you are in a room with one thousand people, there is a very good chance you will not be noticed by anyone, save for those in your immediate vicinity, the same stands true if that crowd was a million people. Now consider this, there are nearly eight billion people on this planet, a number of souls hard to fathom.
When we are employed by the Almighty to do His will, it should not matter to us how many people notice what we are doing. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:6)
But I place this question before you today, if you can personally see no profit, no fruits to your labor of love for Him, how are you to know that what you believe you have been called to do is truly a calling from the Lord, and not just what you think you should be doing? And again, how much fruit of these labors of love do you need to see?
Every person who posts a video on YouTube has the desire to see that video go viral, and while I do not know exactly how many views that word means, I do know it means more than ten or one hundred. How many young men of God who enter into a place of learning to be a pastor daydream of a congregation of thousands each Sunday morning, only to find themselves preaching to the same faces, many of them with dull eyes staring back at them decades later. How are they to not grow weary in the work when there is no further fruit being produced, and when the fruit that has been thought to be there in the first place never grows and produces fruit of its own?
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)
Without the Lord increasing that which we offer unto Him, without visible proof that our efforts are in line with His will for our lives, we cannot determine if we are truly serving Him or if we just think we are. If a street preacher stands on the same corner year after year and not one person comes to the knowledge of the salvation offered by the Most High through His Son Jesus Christ while in his presence, that man will begin to doubt that what he is doing is the will of the Lord in his life. And why shouldn’t he, without visible proof we can have no assurance of that.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” (Heb. 11:8)
Your will to serve the Lord Jesus Christ must be in line with what the Word of God says, feed the poor, visit the widows and orphans, go into the world to reach the lost, give an account for your faith, all of what the Scriptures say we are to do for the glory of God, if we do them in love for the Lord with no thought to ourselves, will bear fruit, and even if it is only in a very small way in your life and seen only occasionally, then that is not only proof to you that you are a profitable servant, but should be enough proof for you.
These revealed actions of bearing fruit should not be expected by you every day, they would lose their luster if it was so, and if you have been blessed to lead someone to the cross and watch as they become your brother or sister in Christ, been blessed to be there at that moment when the Holy Spirit enters into them, then you understand this poorly written letter.
There are fewer times when this verse is more important to hear than now, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)
The man of God called by God for the glory of God alone is shown, although only occasionally, that the path he is on is the one that the Lord Himself has placed him on. It is called encouragement, and whether we will admit it to ourselves or not, we all need it at times. If you are sure, then stay the course, and remain patient.
