One who serves God must learn to discern three things: desire, intention, and ability. We all know that a desire is something which man longs for. An intention, to many people, refers to what man hopes for. And of course, we all know that ability refers to the strength we need to accomplish a certain matter. A person who serves the Lord must be dealt with in these three matters, or there will be a lack in his service.
The desire to serve God is indispensable for every serving one. What God treasures the most is man’s desire to serve Him and man’s desire for Him. God created the universe and all things, but His heart is not on the sun or the stars. Neither is His heart on the angels or on all the other things, because none of these things are for God. The Bible tells us that man is the center of the universe (cf. Zech. 12:1), and that without man the purpose of God cannot be accomplished. Hence, even though God has created all things, His real concern and focus is man alone. The hardest thing for God to gain in man is his heart. This may be likened to a father who loves his son more than anything else but is not able to gain his son’s heart. For us to cooperate with someone, our heart must be open to that person. God has a great deal of work that He desires to do in the universe, but He must gain the cooperation of man to accomplish His work. Hence, to do this, He has to touch man’s heart.
How does God touch man’s heart? What method does He use to move our heart? He uses His love to move our heart. What is love? Love is God’s heart. The heart is really a special thing. When we talk about the heart, we usually refer to love. The heart does not respond to thinking; it must be touched by love. God created us with a heart that we may feel such love. For example, when we are thirsty and someone gives us a glass of water, we drink it. But when we are not thirsty, no matter how much water people give us, we would not drink it. God’s heart is like the glass of water, and our heart is the thirst. Everyone responds to love because in man there is a heart of love. We have a body without and a spirit within, and in between our spirit and our body is the soul, which includes the mind, the emotion, and the will.
God’s heart desires that man would love Him, but man’s heart always loves something other than God, something that he should not love. Regardless of our age—old or young—some love their families, some love their pets, some love movies, some love to play mah-jongg, some love their reputation, some love position, some love knowledge, and some love money. It seems that without love, man has no meaning. The wonderful thing is that once man has love, he is willing to do anything. Without love, however, it is difficult for him even to lift a finger. No matter how dirty a child is, his mother is willing to take care of him because she loves him. A maid, however, may not be able to render the same care. If we read the Bible in a serious way, we should know that God’s first demand on man is his heart, and second, his love. From the very beginning until the end, God just wants man to be for Him, and God desires that man would love Him with his heart.
The most legitimate love is the love for God Himself. If our heart loves anything else, sooner or later we will suffer loss. Many people who love money are eventually bitten by money. Many people who love others are cheated by them. The Bible tells us that only those who love God really taste the sweetness. Psalm 43:4 says, “And I will go to the altar of God, / To God my exceeding joy.” To those whose heart is turned to God, God is their joy. Some people love God so much that just hearing the name of God causes them to feel like they have received an electric shock. This is the kind of heart toward Him that God desires.
However, once we turn our heart to God and we are prepared to live for God, a problem will come. If a person has love, then he will also have an opinion. We may use as an illustration a time when I went to a certain place, and the saints there loved me very much. When they ate, they liked to put sesame oil in every single dish of food or bowl of soup. Thus, the more sesame oil they put into your dish, the more they welcomed you. However, I did not like sesame oil; whenever I smelled sesame oil, I could not stand it. Yet at that time I had no choice but to eat it because we who work for the Lord have to keep a principle that wherever we go, we eat whatever people serve us. Not only did they put sesame oil in my food, but regardless of whether I slept or went out, there was always a brother with me. As a result, I could not rest well or come near to God. They really loved much, but this kind of love was unbearable.