HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business??” Luke 2:49

Jesus fulfilled His ideal. For, by and by, when He came to where the Cross stood, He could say — it is finished — the business of My Father in Heaven.

First, He waited. For a large proportion of the twenty-one years that lay between His first Passover in the Temple, and His last Passover on the shameful hill — He was satisfied to live in quietness and silence. Let me be OK content to wait until God has made me ready to toil and fight for Him. There is nothing more difficult. There is nothing more fruitful.

But then He worked. He often had no time to eat. He felt that the night was coming soon, and He occupied the day with labour. And I should task my utmost capacity, I should employ my every minute, in serving God and man. After waiting, working ought to follow. And so I shall resemble Christ.

He prayed too. Without prayer, work is dull and dreary, plodding and mechanical; therefore, if He were busy all day, He devoted the hours of the darkness to close and blessed fellowship with His Father. And I must ask and receive; I must seek and find. I need to pray infinitely more than my Master did.

And He suffered. What a fire He passed through! What swellings of Jordan He forded with bare and bleeding feet! The principle holds good for me. Suffering in some shape or form is an essential part of my experience, a fundamental ingredient in my life. Thus only am I perfected.

Waiting, working, praying, suffering — my Father’s business.