05 What Shall I Do for Jesus?

What Shall I Do for Jesus?

"Lord, what will You have me to do?"Acts 9:6

We live in stirring times: almost everything is in motion. Mind is especially active, either for good or evil. We have many active in the Church--but all are not active. We have many in our congregations who throw their energies into the Lord’s cause--but there are many who do little or nothing. They have no idea what they could do. They never suspect how useful they may be. They have settled down with the opinion, that the cause of God will go on very well without them. Some of these excite our concern, some grieve us, and some get in our way and hinder us! Here is a question for every one such especially --a question for us all: What shall I do for Jesus?

Reader! did you ever put this question to your conscience? Are you willing to do so now? It can do you no harm; it may do you good. But first ask, Did I ever do anything for Jesus? There are many things done in the Church, and by Christian professors--which are not done for Jesus. There is some other object in view. The eye is not single. The heart is not true. The motive is not pure. Did you ever give yourself to the Lord? This is the first thing to be done. Jesus will not accept anything from you until you have given him yourself. His first request is, "My son--give me your heart!" Withhold from him the heart, and you withhold from him all. He will approve of nothing that you do. He will receive nothing from your hands. You are his enemy! You are in rebellion against him! You refuse to acknowledge his claims. You withhold his just rights. You grieve his loving heart.

If you have not, let me beseech you to go to his throne, present yourself before him in the attitude of a suppliant, offer him your heart just as it is, saying, "Take my poor heart, just as it is, Set up therein your throne; So shall I love you above all, And live to you alone!"

Having given him yourself, you may ask with Saul of Tarsus, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" And be sure that he has something for you to do, and something that no one will do so well as you--something that no one ought to do, but you. He will say, "Son, go work today in my vineyard."

What can you do? This you can never tell--until you try.

What are you willing to do? This you may soon ascertain.

There is the Sunday school. Can you do anything for Jesus there? Can you take a class? If not, can you go around the neighborhood, and collect the children who are still untaught, that others may teach them?

There is the house of prayer. Can you do anything there? Is it full? If so, cannot you look out for young people who attend, unnoticed by any in the congregation, and notice them, trying to get from them whether they feel the power of the word, and try and follow up the preacher’s appeals by a word in private? An immense amount of good may be done in this way, if Christians were only alive to its importance, and would do it for Jesus. Is the congregation thin? Cannot you increase it? Did you ever set about trying in good earnest? Is there no one that you could influence to attend? What! not one? If you could influence one, that one may influence another; and in this way our chapels would soon be filled.

There is the minister. Can you do nothing for him? Do you regularly contribute for his support, according to your means, not making the subscription of anyone else your rule--but giving just as God has prospered you--doing it for Jesus? Do you set apart a certain portion of time every week, that you may pray for him? Are you regular in your attendance on his ministry, and always early, that you may pray for him as you see him ascend his pulpit? Do you take inquirers to him, encouraging them to go and open their hearts to him when concerned for the salvation of their souls?

There are the sick. Do you ever visit them? Jesus takes the visits paid to his sick saints--as paid to himself. He says, "I was sick--and you visited me." "Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these my brethren--you did it unto me." How often do the Lord’s sick, long to see a fellow-worshiper or a fellow-member come in, to read a portion of God’s Holy Word, to oifer up the prayer of faith, or speak a word to them of Jesus! How many fears may be banished, how many temptations may be removed, how many sufferers may be cheered, how many sorrowful believers may be comforted--if their fellow-believers, instead of indulging SELF, would visit them for Jesus, and speak to them of Jesus?

There are the poor. Will you relieve them—the poor saints more especially? Jesus takes what is given to them as given to himself, and promises a reward. Hear his words, believe them, try to realize the truth and importance of them, that you may he influenced hy them: "Whoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward," Matthew 10:42. You see, if you relieve the least saint, with the smallest gratuity, not being able to do more, and do it for Jesus--he pledges his word that you shall on no account lose your reward. And how striking is the language of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle James! "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this--to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world," James 1:27. Tried by this standard how much pure religion have you? Some professors, and some church-members, have very little. When did you dry the widow’s tears, and satisfy the orphan’s needs--going to them, and not waiting for them to come to you? Will you do this for Jesus?

There are the enemies of Christ, as all careless sinners are. You may speak to them, offer special prayer for them, and try to win them over to his cause. "He who wins souls is wise." Proverbs 11:27. But if we would win--we must be winning. Love is the key of the human heart. Once get it in, and you may soon open the door. Love will use gold, silver, kind words, and winning deeds, and thus get access to the heart which was locked against truth and against God. Did you ever attempt to do this for Jesus?

Once more, there is the heathen world. Men and money are needed; you may help to provide them. The power of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary; you may help to bring down that.

There is plenty to do--and no time to be lost; for while we trifle or delay, Satan is working, time is flying, souls are perishing, saints are suffering, the cause of God is languishing, infidelity is spreading, Popery is gaining ground--and we are missing the mark. Let every Christian man, let every Christian woman, then, put the question to the heart, What can I do for Jesus? What more can I do--than I have done? What more can I give--than I have given?

Consider . . . what Jesus has done for you, what he is now doing for you, what he has already given you, what he has promised you, what he deserves from you, what he expects at your hands, the honor he has put upon you, the trust he has committed to you, the charge he has given you, the account he will demand of you, the rule by which he will reward you; and then ask, What can I do for Jesus? And if there is any saving faith, if there is any sincere love to him, if there is any reverence for his authority, if there is any concern for his cause, if there is any zeal for his glory, if there is any pity for lost sinners, if there is any regard for his word, ask—then be honest in asking, What can I do for Jesus? Reader! there is much needs doing, there is much that you may do, and if you stand idle now, you must regret it by-and-bye; rouse up, therefore, and work!