My Orders by Ethelwyn Wetherald

Just read Unfashoinable: Making a difference in the world by being different by Tullian Tchividjian and he quoted a poem, My Orders, by Ethelwyn Wetherald. (Side note: She is also a Canadian :) )

My Orders

MY orders are to fight;

Then if I bleed, or fail,

Or strongly win, what matters it?

God only doth prevail.

The servant craveth naught

Except to serve with might.

I was not told to win or lose,–

My orders are to fight.

It dawned on me I need to rethink what's consider as successful in doing the Lord's work. I always think about the result. Like double the size of the fellowship or have people that are seeking Christ...when it comes to it..those results have nothing to do with me.

The Lord never told me to make it happen. He makes it happen.

He just told me to obey and be obedient. To fight.

Even if the ship is sinking, to keep fighting.

Because that's the order I was given.

No why,

no when,

no how.

Just fight.

When the results is not what I expected, I feel discourage...

why?

I shouldn't be.

Not when the Lord is working and He is always in control. Just because it is not going my way, it doesn't mean our Lord is not working..(hmm..perhaps this is a hint of self pride that I am so 'valuable' for the Lord that He needs me to do His job.....)

In addressing to divisions among a church in the epistles, First Corinthians, Paul wrote:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor

(1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

...

Let The Lord does the heavy lifting.

I am just called to fight.

I am nothing.

It is the Lord that make things grow.

AMEN!!