The Readiness of the King’s Servants

‘Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint.’—2 Sam. xv, 15.
THIS is the secret of steady and unruffled gladness in ‘ the business of the Lord, and the service of the King whether we are ‘over the treasures of the house of God,’  or, ‘ for the outward business over Israel.’
It makes all the difference ! If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever’  the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here?  If he appoints me to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or  ‘show kindness’ for His sake, or at least obey His command, ‘ Be courteous’ ? If all my ‘ members ‘ are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if to-day’s appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue ?

1 I Chron. xxvi. 30. ~ i Chron. xxvi. 20. 3 i Chron. xxvi. 29.
4 John ii. s. 5 Josh. i. 16. 6 2 Sam. ix. 3.

Does it seem a merely ideal life ? Try it! begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you ‘ wholly ‘ into His service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at His disposal, and ask Him to make and keep you ready to do just exactly what He appoints. Never mind about to-morrow;’ one day at a time is enough. Try it to-day, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful, when to-morrow comes, to ask Him to take it also,—till it will become a blessed habit to hold yourself simply and ‘wholly at Thy commandment’  ‘for any manner of service.’
Then will come, too, an indescribable and unexpected sense of freedom, and a total relief from the self-imposed bondage of  ‘having to get through’  what we think lies before us. For,  ‘of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen.’
Then, too, by thus being ready, moment by moment, for whatsoever He shall appoint, we realize very much more that we are not left alone, but that we are dwelling ‘ with the King for His work.’ Thus the very fact of an otherwise vexatious interruption is transmuted into a precious proof of the nearness of the King.-  His interference implies His interest and His presence.

1 I Pet. iii. 8. . 2 Rom. vi. 13. 3 Jas. iv. 14.
* I Chron. xxviii. 21. » i Kings ix. 22. ^ i Chron. iv. 23.

The * whatsoever’ is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting ( whether half an hour or half a lifetime), learning, suffering, sitting still. But, dear fellow-servants of ‘ my Lord the King,’ shall we be less ready for these, if any of them are His appointments for to-day ?  ‘Whatsoever the king did ‘pleased all the people.’

‘Ready’ implies something of preparation,—not being taken by surprise. So let us ask Him to prepare us for all that He is preparing for us. And may ‘ the hand of God give’ us ‘one heart to do the commandment of the King !’

‘ Lord, I have given my life to Thee,

And every day and hour is Thine;

What Thou appointest let them be ;

Thy will is better, Lord, than mine.’
– A. L. Waring.

1 Ps. cxxxix. 5. 22 Sam. iii. 36. 3 2 Chron. xxx. 12.