April 24

Read: Romans 12:1-2

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).

Your Reasonable Service

God wants our lives to be rich and full. Jesus declared: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). How shall we find life’s highest happiness?

The psychiatrist answers in two words — personal integration. If we are to be wholesome personalities, life must be organized around some central goal and purpose. The consecrated life is reasonable in view of the requirements for mental health. Consecration demands of us an all-inclusive commitment — and a commitment to life’s supreme value. Sooner or later devotion to anything less than God and goodness will fall short of our deepest needs. The highest unification of life and the only permanently successful integration of personality is in the realm of the spirit. Jesus gives us the clue: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

The Bible tells us that a “double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). The psychiatrist adds that this instability destroys our happiness. Certainly to live a divided life, to feel pulled apart and at loose ends, to be all at odds with oneself is to be unhappy. On the other hand, as Dr. William H. Shelton says, “Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one directionally, without regret or reservation.” How else in life can one find such happiness? This radiance of living is made possible by entire consecration. Full devotion to the will of God is our reasonable service, for through consecration comes fullness of life.

All that I want is in Jesus, He satisfies, joy He supplies; Life would be worthless without Him, All things in Jesus I find.*

— Harry Dixon Loes

*Copyright By permission Hope Publishing Co.