Living Simply – Yet Focused
“...consider the lilies of the field…” (Matthew 6:26, 28).
“Consider the lilies in the
field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin” ~ they simply are! Think
of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon ~ all of these simply are as well ~ yet what a ministry
and service they render on our behalf.
So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit
through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be…useful. Jesus said there is only one way to develop
and grow spiritually, and that is through
focusing and concentrating on God.
In essence, Jesus was saying, “Do
not worry about being of use to others; simply believe on Me.” In other words, pay attention to the Source, and out of you “will flow rivers of living
water” (John
The people who influence us the
most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in
the sky and “the lilies of the field” ~ simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.
If you want to be of use to God,
maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him,
and He will make use of you every minute you live ~ yet you will be unaware, on
the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him.”
Taken from My Utmost for His Highest
by Oswald Chambers.
copyright 1935 by Dodd Mead &
A Wayside Flower
A lily by the wayside
grew, all alone, and beamed in radiance on the few who passed the weary path
along, dejected, sore, with ne’er a song to cheer them.
It breathed its
fragrance in the air, this flower, and gave the sunshine odor rare and led a
pilgrim in surprise to lift his vision to the skies
above him.
And thus it lived its
tranquil life in silence and heeded not life’s stress and strife ~ just
breathed forth purity awhile, then loosed its petals with a smile, and vanished.
Frank Wilford