“Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20
Martyn Lloyd Jones, regarded by many as the greatest preacher of the twentieth century, was given remarkable gifts and widespread influence around the world. His friend and biographer Iain Murray visited him in his last days when he had little strength and was restricted to a routine of hospital visits and receiving a few friends.
“Our greatest danger,” said Lloyd Jones, “is to live upon activity. The ultimate test of a preacher is what he feels like when he cannot preach.” That’s not just true of preachers. It is true for all of us when we are no longer able to do what we once did or what we wish we could do.
Then Lloyd Jones quoted these words of Jesus: “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (10:20). In other words, “Don’t find your joy in what you are doing for Jesus. Find your joy in what Jesus does for you.”
When you know what it cost the Savior for your sins to be forgiven, for your name to be written in heaven, and for your eternal future to be secured, you will find great joy in what he has done for you, irrespective of what you may or may not get to do for him.
Are you finding greater joy in what you are doing for the Lord, or in what he has done for you?
