THE GLORIOUS CHAPTER on the resurrection of the body ends up this way: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).
Today I received a letter from the governor of a state, and in it was this sentence: “But I feel a lonely and lost soul and do not know what to do with myself.” He had worked hard for his country and had given devoted service, and yet he felt it was all futile, in vain. Why? His work was not in the Lord. It was therefore vain and futile.
Strange how different I felt about my labor in that same country. Outwardly I had not succeeded as he had, but I wasn’t working for success or position, but just for and in the Lord. He felt a failure, and I felt there could be no failure. In the Lord success and failure were irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was being in Him. In Him even failure is success. Out of Him even success is failure.
In Him all you ask for is His smile and His “well done.” Note, not “well succeeded,” but “well done,” for it is “well done” if it is in Him and for His sake. I remember speaking in England on my return to India after my first furlough, and saying: “The romance of missions is over. I know exactly what I’m going back to, much of it drab and seamy. But if the Father were to tell me that I would see no success, only failure the balance of my days, I would reply: ‘My business is not to succeed or to fail—my business is to be true to the heavenly vision when He said: “It’s India.” It is lifted above success and failure—it’s in Him.’” That made everything safe and secure. Strange to say, when the eyes are on the Savior and not on success, we are embarrassed with unearned success!
O God, my Father, I thank Thee that Thou canst give us a holy indifference to success or failure, and a holy concern as to whether what we do is wholly in Thee. There everything is wholly safe. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I have one business in life: to live and work in the Lord. Results are His concern.
