today's streams in the desert

September 3

"And He saw them toiling in rowing." [Mark 6:48]

  Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives man to do.  Only God Himself, who always works without strain, and who never overworks, can do the work that He assigns to His children.  When they restfully trust Him to do it, it will be well done and completely done.  The way to let Him do His work through us is to partake of Christ so fully, by faith, that He more than fills our life. 

  A man who had learned this secret once said:  "I came to Jesus and I drank, and I do not think that I shall ever be thirsty again.  I have taken for my motto,  'Not overwork, but overflow'; and already it has made all the difference in my life."

  There is no effort in overflow.  It is quietly irresistible.  It is the normal life of omnipotent and ceaseless accomplishment into which Christ invites us today and always. --Sunday School Times.

Be all at rest, my soul, O blessed secret,

Of the true life that glorifies thy Lord:

Not always doth the busiest soul best serve Him,

But he that resteth on His faithful Word.

Be all at rest, let not your heart be rippled,

For tiny wavelets mar the image fair,

Which the still pool reflects of heaven's glory--

And thus the image He would have thee bear.

Be all at rest, my soul, for rest is service,

To the still heart God doth His secrets tell;

Thus shalt thou learn to wait, and watch, and labor,

Strengthened to bear, since Christ in thee doth dwell.

For what is service but the life of Jesus,

Lived through a vessel of earth's fragile clay,

Loving and giving and poured forth for others,

A living sacrifice from day to day.

Be all at rest, so shalt thou be an answer

To those who question, "Who is God and where?"

For God is rest, and where He dwells is stillness,

And they who dwell in Him, His rest shall share.

And what shall meet the deep unrest around thee,

But the calm peace of God that filled His breast?

For still a living Voice calls to the weary,

From Him who said, "Come unto Me and rest."

--Freda Hanbury Allen