Daily Encouragement: Day 337

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

CAUSES vs. CHRIST

It is easy to become more concerned with good causes than with knowing Christ. As Oswald Chambers notes in My Utmost for His Highest, “Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. … The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. … We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. … The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him.”

Our primary purpose is not to do something for Christ, but to know Him; our activities and abilities are useless for the kingdom unless He energizes them, and this will not happen if they take precedence over intimacy with Him. We become weary and exhausted when we attempt more public ministry than we can cover in private growth.

It is crucial for us to form the habit of holy leisure, of quiet places and times alone with the Lord, so that we will restore our passion and intimacy with Christ. In this way, service will flow out of our life with Him and our activities and abilities will be animated by dependence upon His indwelling power. This restoration and renewal is especially important after periods of intense activity.