Hearts for our Father’s Approval and Harvest

This morning I saw some things I hadn’t seen before.

First, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus does a lot of work with the disciples to focus them on a life aimed at receiving God’s approval. Their devotion and seeking after God is supposed to be in secret and authentic before God. Their lives are to be streamlined to exclude earthly distraction and to serve God alone in this great rescue operation. Jesus promises that all things will be added to those who give themselves, first, to fulfilling their work as disciples.

I think of the hungering and thirsting Jesus spoke of and realize that some time before this, the disciples were trying to get Him to eat and Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.” They saw Jesus in a moment of "reward", totally overcome with the joy and satisfaction the Father and Spirit had given Him in the harvest. Not only do I want that, but Jesus wants us to want that.

I think of the apostle Paul saying, “Though I am free from all men I have made myself a slave to all. …I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel that I might share in its blessings.” To please Christ and to share these blessings, Paul was willing to discipline his life and desires into submission to Christ and serve Him in the harvest. Paul lived the Sermon on the Mount as a disciple in God’s Field.

But here is the real question. If the commission is really that important and Christ's command to bear fruit in the harvest this pointed, where is this push in the life of every Christian and in every church? Have we already received all we want without having to perform the work of a disciple? What a deal! Already we are filled.

Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, in a very funny context, is the warning regarding losing your sight, or spiritual ability to see, thinking you are filled with light, but it's really darkness. What if we have lost sight of the real calling and task and cost of discipleship and our desire for comfort and stuff has poked us in the eye and the light we think is in us is really darkness? I'd love to think this could never happen to the saved, but I know better.

Then Jesus gave another warning to his disciples about 2 masters. I think it is far easier for us to do the “swap out Jesus for another master” thing than we think. It makes you wonder if we have fooled ourselves into believing "anything+Jesus" is Ok with God.

If we are not weeping now, hungering now, seeing how the harvest is white and working in it actively, not "in our hearts," mixing it up with the lost, setting an example to other believers of showing mercy to the hell bound, we've gotten poked in the eye. We've bowed down to something else. I don't see an exception clause here.

And then there was Jeremiah this morning, doing what God wanted and getting thrown in the slammer again (he does this every year at this time) as Nebuchadnezzar is working to take Jerusalem (Jer. 32-33). What a reward for obedience and following God. Then you get it. God was protecting Jeremiah, both from the people and from the destruction that was about to take place. And in that context, it keeps saying, “and the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,” while he was in jail. Call after call after call. It was a good thing Jeremiah had unlimited minutes or had God on his “friends” list. What a funny reward. He’s in jail, but protected and God encourages him by speaking to & thru him again and again and again.

Our Father doesn't say what His reward will be when we follow Him as disciples in the Harvest. Maybe we're the only ones who understand how He tailored an event to fill our hearts. Maybe the reward is simply to be with Christ (John 14:21-23). If that’s it, I’ll take it!  Better to be working hard for Him in the harvest, feeling the hunger, hearing His voice with our hearts full of light and rewarded in secret, than to be filled and satisfied by this country's or our church's comforts, having lost our sight and thinking we have Him because we feel a chill when we sing "Mighty to Save."