The Valley of Vision (4)

“O God, whose will conquers all, there is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service.” The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth Trust, page 4.

We can also say, “There is no fullness, no true satisfaction, no lasting sense of purpose and destiny apart from enjoying you and serving you.”

To serve God is to do all things to His glory by and through Jesus Christ. It is to repair an automobile in His name, to bake a loaf of bread, to repair a computer, to serve in an office of government, to care for the sick, to work in a bowling alley, to teach elementary school – for the disciple of Jesus Christ all vocation is to be vocation offered up to God (Colossians 3:17 – 25).

To enjoy God is to know God, and to know God is to enjoy God. To seek the Face of God, to behold Him in ever greater splendor, is to enjoy Him. In enjoying God we find ourselves experiencing a glorious homecoming in that we are returning to Him in whom we have our origin, to His House which we had foolishly left – our dear Brother Jesus came to rescue us and bring us Home to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God (Hebrews 2:9 – 18; John 16:25 – 33; 20:17).

“I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name” (page 5).

Here is a truth that the church ignores, and in so doing it ignores our Lord Jesus who said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; see also John 5:30, 8:28, 12:49, 14:10).

Jesus says that “…apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) – do we believe this? Do we live this?

“O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness, when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate. This, by bitter experience, thou hast taught me concerning myself” (page 5).

Outside of Christ we are capable of all wickedness in thought, in feeling, in word, in deed. As Christians we are capable of clothing our own ideas of goodness and self-righteousness in religious garb – thinking to impress God and others. Far better to allow the realization of God’s restraining grace to drive us to the Cross and the realization that, “I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name.”