Ready in Season
“Be ready in season
and out of season.” — 2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer
from the unbalanced tendency to "be
ready" only "out of
season." The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This
verse says, "Preach the Word! Be
ready in season and out of season." In other words, we should "be ready" whether we feel
like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would
never do anything. There are some people who are completely unemployable in the
spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do
anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our
relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the worst
traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own
exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of
inspiration and insight, you tend to say, "Now
that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God."
No, you will not, and God will make sure of that.
Those times are
entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If
you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional
times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do
anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at
all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God
will fade out of your life, never to return until
you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be
obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.
Taken from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.
copyright 1935 by Dodd Mead &
“The Christian…is
to be persistent. He is to urge the
claims of Christ “in season and out of season.”…It was said of George Morrison
of
William
Barclay