Keeping at One's Best
On Thee do I wait all the day.’’ — Psam xxv. 5.
Wuat I am thinking about is this — that so many of us only wait on God for a very little while, and then we withdraw, and it is all over. Our waiting is a passing visit; it is not an abiding. We merely call upon the Lord; we do not live with Him. We go and we come away; we do not wait on Him all the day.
The trouble with many of us is tl: in this broken and fragmentary idea of the devotional life. We think of our devotions as a sort of discipline or gymnastics which we can pack into five or ten minutes. We do not regard them as a vital communion which runs right through the day. And so fellowship comes to be looked upon as a kind of morning drill. Not that I would disparage the morning drill, even in physical exercises; but the morning drill is not worth much if it is followed by the careless indifference of a lounging attitude, or a shambling walk, or if we huddle up in our chairs in an almost hunchbacked deformity. And the morning devotion is worth just as little if it is regarded as something we can do and have done with, and carry no shaping devoutness into the rest of the day. We have not really entered into the secret place of the Most High if we can leave it behind. The only vital fellowship is that which waits on God “all the day.”
Professor Gairdner used to say, ‘‘ One never knows what work God may ask one to do at any moment, and one should always be at one’s best.”? And surely that is only a paraphrase of the Master’s counsel: ‘‘ Have your loins girt and your lamps trimmed, and be ye ready.” And if this spiritual readiness is to be yours it will demand a spiritual habit and not merely an occasional act. For it implies a way of living. It means that the soul keeps itself reverently posed towards the eternal with an alert readiness to know and to do the will of the Lord.
That is one of the shining distinctions of the angels of God: ‘‘ They do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.” Their spirit is ever ready; they are alert and vigilant. They are receptive and appreciative, and their mood is constant. They serve Him day and night in His temple, and it is a service in which they never tire, and never grow old.
Yes, we should always be at our best, and the secret of being at one’s best is found in waiting on God “‘all the day.” We must seek continuity of communion. We need a Divine fellowship which remains unbroken even in seasons of merriment and in the hours when we earn our daily bread. Our God is a Companion for the whole journey. He will accompany us all the day and all the way.