Often the work of the Lord itself may be a temptation to keep us from that communion with Him which is so essential to the benefit of our own souls.
Interpretation
Work can distract us from spiritual communion with God, which is essential for our well-being.
In this quote, George Muller emphasizes the importance of maintaining a close and personal relationship with God, suggesting that even the act of doing good works can become a distraction. He warns that when we focus too much on our efforts and duties in service, we may neglect our need for intimate communion with God, which is vital for the nourishment of our souls.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a spiritual retreat to encourage participants to focus on their relationship with God.
A child rightly trained may be a world-wide blessing, with an influence reaching onward to eternal years. But a neglected or misdirected directed child may live to blight and blast mankind, and leave influences of evil which shall roll on in increasing volume till they plunge into the gulf of eternal perdition.
The longer I live, the more I am enabled to realize that I have but one life to live on Earth, and that this one life is but a brief life, for sowing, in comparison with eternity, for reaping.
The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.
The Lord never lays more on us, in the way of chastisement, than our state of heart makes needful; so that whilst He smites with the one hand, He supports with the other.
I desire many things concerning myself; but I desire nothing so much, as to have a heart filled with love to the Lord. I long for a warm personal attachment to Him.
The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.
Too often we treat prayer as the preparation for the work of the church. Do you not see? Prayer IS the work of the church.
My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember Godβs kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done.
We regard prayer no longer as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege which is to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.
If Jesus is to become the center of our life, we need to spend time in His presence, before the Tabernacle.
Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch.
There are not three stages in spiritual life-worship, waiting, and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs. We jump from worship to waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of our Lord.
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