Day Sixteen

Along with my morning prayers I also take time to do a few other things in the wee hours of the day before my children wake-up (or sometimes before I can no longer pacify them with chocolate milk and Disney Junior). One of the other things I do for my time with God is read a daily passage from A.B. Simpson's "Days of Heaven Upon Earth" which is a sort of daily devotional reading written by the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Sometimes I find Simpson especially poignant and yesterday was one of those days. Here is the full text of what he wrote for March 10 (the book is now public domain):

“How ye ought to walk and please God” (I. Thess. iv. 1).

How many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed them, and yet the devil is harassing their lives with a vague sense of not quite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that God has assigned them and fill it sweetly and lovingly for Him there would be more joy in their hearts and more power in their lives. God wants us all in various places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to recognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In the great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and rivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so God has His little screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to believe that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in the little spaces that they fill for Him.

There is something all can do,
Tho' you're neither wise nor strong;
You can be a helper true,
You can stand when friends are few,
Some lone heart has need of you,
You can help along.

It struck me because I know so many Christians who are antsy about their place in life - what are they doing, where will they be, could they be doing more somewhere else? I think what I'm hearing from this is  that God wants s to be fruitful where we are planted. We are not where we are by accident - and while God does call people to go (A.B. Simpson did found a missionary movement remember) we can't live our lives paralyzed from action because we're waiting for a call to something else.

Probably not my most coherent post of this Lenten season - but I think you can see what I'm getting at.

Just my thoughts for the day.

Happy Lenting.