THE LORD’S LIFE AND HIS PRECIOUS PROMISES
In the last chapter we saw that the divine power of God has granted to us all things related to life and godliness and has also granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises. Hence, we should not worry for the needs of our daily life. Rather, we need to calm down our desire and concern, so that we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and be partakers of the divine nature, to enjoy God Himself. The tide of this age, the pressure of living, the bondage of human affection, plus our own lust, both inwardly and outwardly are seducing us, constraining us, in order to ensnare us into corruption through lust. But we have the Lord’s life and His promises. When we live by these, we can live peacefully and contentedly in the practical situation of our living. Our money and our time should also have proper arrangement and balance, affording help to man’s need and God’s business through proper means. Then we will have a living that really enjoys human life.
Only the life of Christ and His precious promises can cause us to live this kind of normal yet miraculous living. Through this we can save much money as well as time for prayer, fellowshipping with the Lord, enjoying the Lord in His Word, going out to preach the gospel to people by visiting them, and caring for the saints. I always bow my head to worship the Lord for what He has allotted to me. Due to His sovereign arrangement, He caused me to be born in a poor village and grow up in a poor home. From my youth, I learned to be hard working and enduring, endeavoring to move forward. Hence, I was also preserved. Afterwards in my studies, I came in contact with missionaries from whom I learned English and had more opportunity to know the Lord. After my graduation, the Lord caused my living to be not too poor nor too rich, but just right for serving the Lord. Because I knew English, I could know the Bible in a more convenient way, even making footnotes to the Bible, and expounding the truths. Nevertheless, I did not know English to the point that I could become an English professor or scholar. If I had pursued that, I would not have been able to concentrate on being the Lord’s worker. For the Lord’s sake, I have been in poverty, and I also have been in abundance. The Lord still caused me to be at peace. Speaking of earthly achievement, I do not possess anything today, and neither am I anything. I am just an ordinary person, preserved by the Lord and enjoying the genuine human life.
The Lord created and redeemed us, not for the purpose of making us someone special. What the Lord desires is that we live a proper and normal life, experiencing, enjoying, and expressing Him. The highest philosophy of human living is in the Bible. This kind of human life is normal yet miraculous because it is not something that we can live by ourselves, but God must enter into us to be our life in order for us to live out this kind of life. When the Lord Jesus was a man on the earth, He lived this kind of life. Before He came out to minister at the age of thirty, He was growing up in a despised city, in a carpenter’s home. The Bible does not record what He did or said; He was just there living. That God who created everything, including mankind, would become an ordinary and humble human being in the flesh, without anything outstanding is a real miracle.
I can testify in this way: the Lord Jesus lives within me as my life. I am very satisfied in my living today. I feel that I am enjoying human life the most. I go to bed, rise up, eat, and drink on time. Hence, I have no woes or sicknesses. By the Lord’s grace, I am already over eighty years old. I am still healthy. Not only can I take care of many business affairs, but I can also memorize the words of the Bible. I am speaking this word to you working ones so that you may know that our being able to live the church life on the earth is a most blessed matter. The church life is the most normal and miraculous living. Therefore, none of us saved ones may say that we do not have time to live the church life. If someone does not have time to live the church life, it is because he does not enjoy the Lord enough. As long as the Lord’s supply within us is adequate, our church life will surely be proper and satisfying, and time will not become a problem.
Although we saved ones live in the world, we should not belong to the world. We were saved and delivered from the worldly falsehood and deceit. In this current of the world, not only do we not join others in their evil, but we also are able to stand and become a pillar in the midst of the current. I hope that these words can help you so that you can be strengthened in the Lord’s grace. He has already granted to us all the supply. We should live in His living and stand on His promises, allowing His life and His promises to calm all the desires within us and remove all our demands. Then we can live our days in quietness and stability, living a normal church life, that we personally, our family, our relatives, and friends, and even the society may be blessed. This is what the Lord spoke in Matthew 5 when He said that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (vv. 13-14). We are salt because we can remove the corruption of the earth. We are light because we can enlighten the people in darkness. Nevertheless, any time we do not live the church life, we lose the taste and do not shine. Therefore, in order for us to maintain our status and function as salt and light, we must practice the church life in a good way.
(Messages Given to the Working Saints, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
