For the sake of the Lord’s present move, we all need to make a budget of our time. We have to separate certain hours and devote these hours to the Lord. Out of seven days, many of us should be able to devote two three-hour time periods of two days to the Lord. Many of us have free time on the weekends, so this may be the proper time that we can devote to the Lord for the present advance of His recovery. We should budget six hours a week and devote them by vowing to the Lord. We can tell the Lord, “Lord, out of all my time during the week, I will return six hours to You for Your interest.” We need to budget our time in the same way that we should budget our money. If we do not have a proper budget for our expenses, we will spend our money loosely, and eventually we will be in debt. But if we budget our money, we will spend our money according to our budget, and we will not be in debt. Likewise, if we do not budget our time, it will be wasted.
I told the saints in the past that if we budget our time faithfully, this will cut off much unnecessary telephone talk. When we do not budget our time, we will be so loose and free in the way that we spend our time. To many of the sisters, the telephone is “sticky.” Once they get on the phone, it is hard for them to get off. We may waste much time on the telephone because we do not have a budget for our time. We should vow to the Lord to spend three hours, two times a week, to go to visit others’ homes, either for preaching the gospel by knocking on doors, for home meetings, or for grouping the new ones together and having small group meetings. If all the saints in the local churches do this, the issue will be marvelous.
Of the ones we baptized in the past, many may not have remained because we did not go back to care for them faithfully and consistently. If a newborn child does not have a nursing mother to constantly care for him, he will not be able to survive. We must have a change in our practice. We need a present recovery in practicality. If we can devote six hours a week to the Lord, three hours of two days, we will see the results.
Some may decide to devote every Lord’s Day afternoon from three o’clock to six o’clock for knocking on people’s doors to preach the gospel. When we go out to preach the gospel, we should not go by ourselves. We must have a team of three. We have to pray, “Lord, give me two companions.” Of these two companions, at least one should be a sister. On the first afternoon that we go out to preach the gospel, we may not gain anyone, but we should not be disappointed. We must continue to labor. Perhaps when we go out again the next Lord’s Day, we still will not gain anyone. What should our attitude be? We have to be strong in our spirit and in our will, and we have to pray much. If we labor patiently, we will reap some fruit for the Lord. Eventually, on the fourth Lord’s Day that we go out, we may baptize five new ones into the Triune God. If we labor in the Lord patiently, He will lead us to the ones whom He has chosen. Sometimes the Lord will test us to such an extent that we will not gain anyone after going out to preach the gospel five times. We went out to fish for men, and it seems as if the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from us. In John 21 the disciples fished all night and they caught nothing, but at the Lord’s word to cast their net, they caught an abundance of fish. If we labor with the Lord faithfully during the hours that we have devoted to Him, we can have the assurance that we will bear two remaining fruit yearly.
We must make a budget of our time, we must be desperate, and we must endeavor. Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29 that he announced Christ by laboring, struggling, and striving. The Greek word for “struggling” implies the thought of fighting and battling. Paul struggled according to the operation of Christ, which operated in him in power. This shows that it was not so easy for the Apostle Paul to gain people. His announcing Christ was a battle. In this universe, God desires sinners to be saved, and the Devil is doing everything he can to frustrate this. Because of this fighting between God and His enemy, we have to endeavor. The enemy will do whatever he can to frustrate us from devoting time to the Lord for His gospel service. He may make us feel tired or sick. Sometimes our feeling that we have a cold may be a falsehood from Satan. We need to say, “Satan, get away from me. I will not listen to your falsehood. I trust in my God to whom I have vowed these three hours.” If we go out in this way by faith, the Lord will take care of us. When we are going out to preach the gospel by knocking on doors, we should not believe the falsehoods of the enemy, which may be feelings that we are tired, that we have no strength, or that we have a cold. We have to endeavor because there is a struggle.