John Wesley's Holy and Secret Covenant With the Lord
Mark 12:30
And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.''
There is another thing of which I would like to remind the brothers who are in business. I believe we should learn from John Wesley, who had a holy, secret covenant with the Lord. Between you and God there should be a careful pact as to how much you can spend. A Christian's spending habit should be according to God's measure of spending. To increase spending based on increased income is not the Christian way of living. The church does not want to say anything about a man's standard of living. It will not decide what this secret covenant between you and God should be.
I am not an extreme person. I do not want to say any extreme things, but presently, in the midst of all the turmoil of war, many people do not have enough to eat. How can we live peacefully in excess? This corrupts Christian character. Between us and God there should be a crucial and secret covenant. This will limit us from careless spending. We will not dare to buy anything capriciously.
John Wesley kept his secret covenant with the Lord all his years. As soon as his spending reached a certain point, he would freeze his spending. All the brothers in business should learn to do the same. They should say, "My standard of living will only go up to a certain point, after which I will have to freeze it. I will only allow it to reach that point, beyond which I will not do anything." Many people will have to make this decision before the Lord. Whether the standard should be higher or lower should be decided by each individual's amount of consecration before the Lord. Do not compare yourself with others. But do not set the standard too low, unless that is a standard with which God has enlightened you. Always follow the Lord's leading, not your own choices. Once you have made the decision, do your best to abide by that secret covenant. You should abide by it for ten years, twenty years, or thirty years. In this way we can give away everything for the Lord.
The Collected Works of Watchman Nee (Set 3), Vol. 61,142-143, by Watchman Nee.
|
