I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for His Body. (Colossians 1:24 NLT)
Paul knew something of that "suffering for His
Body's sake"; "filling up that which was lacking of the sufferings of Christ."
We must face that! The thing that is going to count for God is the sharing in
His travail.
There is all the romance of Christian work but,
that is mere glamor; all the enthusiasm and interest of organized Christian
activity; but it is not what we are before men in this matter that counts, but
what we are before God in the secret place, having heart concern for the Lord's
testimony. Have you a burden, a passion? Is the breakdown in the Lord's
testimony in the earth among those upon whom His Name is called a heartbreak to
you? We shall never get anywhere till, in measure, His travail is entered into
by us. Ministry, in its real, abiding, eternal value, will depend upon the
measure in which the travail is entered into by us. This is a day for travail:
whether it be a travail for the unsaved or for the Lord's people; every true
spiritual activity is born out of travail, and those who have been most used of
God in every time have been men and women who had this travail in their soul, in
their secret life with God. Have you got it? Perhaps you say no. Then ask the
Lord to bring you into His concern; stretch yourself out before God to be
brought into His burden for the time in which you live.