January 14

The men God wants

“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men” (Prov. 22:29).
“And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him” (Mark 1:20).

God never goes to the lazy or the idle when He needs men for His service. When God wants a worker He calls a worker. . . . Scripture and history attest this truth.
Moses was busy with the flock at Horeb. Gideon was busy threshing wheat by the wine-press. Saul was busy searching for his father’s lost beasts. David was busy caring for his father’s sheep. Elisha was busy plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Nehemiah was busy bearing the King’s wine cup. Amos was busy following the herds. Peter and Andrew were busy casting a net into the sea.


Matthew was busy collecting customs. Saul was busy persecuting the friends of Jesus. William Carey was busy making shoes. John Milton was busy mastering classics. Martin Luther was busy performing penance. John Bunyan was busy tinkering pots and pans. Roger Williams was busy as a stenographer. Adoniram Judson was busy investigating religious truth. Charles Spurgeon was busy as a teacher.
God never called an idler into His service. The busy workers are the men God wants.

This is the gospel of labor;
Ring it, ye bells of the kirk—
The Lord of Love came down from above
To live with the men who work.
—Henry Van Dyke.

When God made the oyster, He guaranteed his absolute economic and social security. He built the oyster a house, his shell, to shelter and protect him from his enemies. When hungry, the oyster simply opens his shell and food rushes in for him. He has freedom from want.
But when God made the eagle He declared: “The blue sky is the limit—build your own house!” So the eagle built on the highest mountain. Storms threaten him every day. For food he flies through miles of rain and snow and wind. But think of it, the eagle, not the oyster, is the emblem of America.—Morris Mandel.

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