Satisfied with Second Violin

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain" (1 Corinthians 9:24)

There was a celebrated Englishman who sat with a friend once, watching and listening to a philharmonic orchestra. As they listened, the Englishman watched a man playing second violin. He was playing it well, but he was second violin. The Englishman said to his friend, "See that man there playing second violin? If I were playing second violin in that orchestra, do you know what I would do? I would never rest day or night until I was playing first violin. And then I would never give myself rest day or night until I was directing that orchestra. When I got to be director I would never rest until I had become a composer. And when I got to composing music for the orchestra I would never give myself rest until I was the best composer in England."

The children of the world are sometimes wiser than the children of light. We have been offered not the directorship of a great orchestra, but glory and truth unsearchable. We have been offered the face of God and the glory of Christ. We have been offered holiness and righteousness and indwelling by the Holy Spirit. We can have our prayers answered and have hell fear us because we have a hold on God who invites us to draw on His omnipotence. We are offered all this, and yet we sit and play second violin without ambition.

Lord, don't let me be satisfied with second fiddle. Strengthen me to run in such a way that I might be all that You want me to be, for Your glory. Amen

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Lord, Send the Oil

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments" (Psalm 133:1-2)

And just as Aaron's body had the oil dripping down around it, unto his clothing, so that he smelled like the oil that had been put on his head, so this living together in unity among the Lord's people brings a blessing of oil, an anointment that comes down upon us. It's the same ointment that ran on the head of Jesus, even the Holy Spirit, and comes down all over His people. You and I are members of that Body of which He is the Head and the oil that flowed on His head can flow down over His Body which is you and me, and we can keep a unbroken continuity of life from the Jordan River. The life of the Holy Spirit came upon the head of Jesus and it comes now upon you and me and upon all the people of God that dwell together in unity.

Are we such that God can bless us? Do we have this unity of determination to glorify the Lord alone ... of a determination to see the Lord work, of oneness in present expectation, of submission to the Lord and of resolution to put away everything that hinders? If we are, then we're a united people and we may expect any time the oil that flowed on the head of Jesus to flow down over us and bring oil and blessing and life for evermore.

Lord, give us that unity, that absorption, that resolution to put away anything that hinders. Let us feel the oil. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~