And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith. Galatians 6:9–10.
It’s easy to become weary in well-doing, because most of the things that we do are without an obvious reward or recompense. Evil people would do good, if they could see that for every good deed, they would receive it back with interest.
However, it’s never obvious that what you’re doing for God does anything for you. You work, so who appreciates it? You fall exhausted and someone kicks you and says, “Get up and help me some more. What have you done for me lately?”
Sooner or later, every ministry comes to the place where they realize that there isn’t any obvious reward. But if you minister, God is the paymaster, and He sees that you get the blessing back again. There is not a direct association with it, nor is there always a direct association in judgment.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if at the time you were doing something wrong, God would suddenly slap you so you could get down and repent, associating the offense with the punishment? That’s why it’s good for children, and for criminals as well, to be punished not too long after the offense. The Word of God tells us that when justice is swift, then there’s a great deterrent to crime in the land.
Sometimes God moves on us in a way in which we can go along for weeks, and suddenly we’re aware that He has us in a corner. We don’t realize how slowly God moves, whether in judgment or in blessing. I have reaped blessings that the Lord gave me, years after I had done something. The Lord faithfully brought the blessing later. We don’t associate it so quickly, but the Word says, and let us not be weary in well-doing. “Well, what’s the percentage? I keep on doing well, but I’m not getting anywhere!” How do you know? It just doesn’t appear on the surface. The Word says, in due season. When God sees that the time is there, in due season we shall reap, but there’s another condition, if we faint not.
Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. Hebrews 10:35. Just to be confident toward God has great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. Hebrews 10:36. You do the will of God; you don’t cast away your confidence; and in due season you shall reap if you faint not. The old order had a tendency to say, “In the sweet by and by,” but we don’t preach on heaven or hell, because we’re so preoccupied with God’s emphasis upon this present hour and what He is bringing forth in the earth, that we feel heaven can wait. And sometimes we feel like Paul: a desire to depart and to be with the Lord, which is far better, but it’s more expedient for us to stick around a while and see it through. In one of the early revivals when George Whitfield was stirring the country, Benjamin Franklin was asked at one of those great altar calls, “Don’t you want to go to heaven?” He studied a minute and said, “Yes, but not right away.” I feel the same way; I want to go to heaven, but not right now. I want to watch what will happen here, and especially the next ten years, which will be so important spiritually.
In due season, we shall reap. You think God doesn’t see all your efforts and the years that you put into it, but He does. So, let us not be weary in well-doing. That weariness must be almost a spiritual thing, because as you press on, in the will of God, there’s that time in which you’ve not only used up the anointing that you have, but you’ve utterly exhausted all your own resources and you feel as if there isn’t anything more that you really have. In due season, at the right time you’ll reap, if you faint not. Don’t faint, don’t give up.
How does that help us? A great deal, because for consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood. Hebrews 12:3–4a. We don’t want to faint. We want to draw from the Lord. We want everything of the grace of God to come to us.
There may be, Lord, no one here who has had long days and nights of waiting and has cried unto the Lord, “How long, O Lord, how long?” And maybe there are none who have felt that while they were waiting on God, centuries were passing. They lost all perspective of time and were clinging like Jacob of old in the night of the wrestling. All they could do was just hang on and say, “I won’t let you go, Lord.” There may be none here who have ever felt the discouragement deep in their hearts, “How long before the promises that God has given me will spring forth?” There may be none like Abraham of old that have wandered in the night and tried to count the stars, waiting for the day to come and holding faith the best they could. There may be none, Lord that have peered through the bars of an Egyptian prison and wondered, “Where are all the dreams of youth, where are all the promises that God gave to me as a boy?” like Joseph of old. But Lord, if there are those that are spending their years as a tale that is told and are saying, “Lord, help me; help me, until the due season of reaping comes; help me, until the promises spring forth; help me to do the will of God, that I might receive the promise by Your precious blood, by Your precious body,” then we look to Thee lest we be wearied, and lest we faint in our minds.