At one time or another, we all have made up our mind to pursue spiritual growth and usefulness to the Lord. However, pursuing by our own determination often can become a matter of formality and therefore become inconsistent with reality. Real pursuing should be carried out in every aspect of our daily life. You can be enjoying the sights of mountains and rivers in your travels yet still be pursuing. You can be chatting with a friend about all sorts of topics yet still be paying a price. We should be paying a price and pursuing the Lord in every aspect of our daily life.
We cannot find that the Lord ever presided over a formal meeting while He was on the earth, because the Lord was not bound by formalities. Rather, He led the disciples to pursue in their daily life. Even while they were traveling, they were still pursuing (Matt. 5:1; 8:23; 9:10; 13:1-2, 10, 36; 16:13; 17:1-2; 24:1-3). In the Old Testament Gideon and his followers were tested in their daily life in the matter of how they drank water (Judg. 7:4-8). This should be the principle of our spiritual pursuit. We should not pray only when we enter into a certain room, nor should we preach and work only when we enter into the meeting hall and step onto the platform. If we pray, preach, and work only at these times, we are merely keeping religious formalities.
We can pursue at any time, whether we are on the mountain or by the seashore, on the road or at home. It is in our daily living that people can detect whether we are truly seeking after the Lord and whether we can truly be used by the Lord. If we cannot work for the Lord in our daily life, then we surely cannot work for Him at scheduled times. A true worker is one who is able to render spiritual help and spiritual supply to others in his every move and action during the course of his ordinary daily life. Only this is reality. Our living must be real and not religious. All the persons and things we contact and encounter every day, at every time, and in every place are opportunities for us to pay the price and pursue being useful to the Lord.
A basic price we need to learn to pay in our daily pursuit is that the younger ones must receive help from the older ones, and the older ones must try their best to help the younger ones. In order to become manifested before the Lord as those who are truly pursuing spiritual growth, we must take care of these two matters. On the one hand, we should do all we can to receive help from whoever can render us help, and on the other hand, we should do all we can to help whoever needs our help. This is real pursuing. However, usually our situation is that the younger ones seek out the younger ones while the older ones seek out the older ones. This is neither true pursuing nor paying the price. This is most likely due to our own preference. Always seeking out those who are of your age group in order to talk intimately with them is not paying a price but having your preference. This practice of spending time only with those whose taste and temperament are the same as yours should be torn down. It is due to an unwillingness to pay the price that the younger ones do not go to the older ones. It is also due to an unwillingness to pay the price that the older ones do not go to the younger ones. This kind of situation is mostly caused by being in the flesh and being unwilling to deny the self.
In chapter one of Song of Songs, the seeker pursues the Lord but still has to pasture the young goats (v. 8). If we neglect the young ones, we are not very useful to the Lord. The older ones should go to help the younger ones because they sense the responsibility to do so. The younger ones should go to the older ones because they sense the need to receive help. This is the proper service.
We should not wait until the meeting time to serve. Instead, we should serve while we are working in the office, while we are doing chores at home, and even while we are away from home, traveling during our leisure time. This may be likened to the fact that whether a mother is at home or away from home-working at a job, taking care of some business, or doing some recreational activities-she cannot forget her children. The real lessons of pursuing are learned in our daily life, and the real time to serve is during ordinary times.
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