Found Worthwhile

1 Corinthians 3:12-14

"If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test that quality of each one's work.  If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire."

Amy Carmichael
Missionary to India

Amy Carmichael, who later became a missionary to India, was a little girl when God led her to those verses.  She read those words and wondered what the meaning was to her.  "Amy had known for as long as she could remember that God loved her, but she began to wonder about how knowing He loved her changed the way she acted each day.


"After several hours of praying and thinking, Amy finally decided she knew what the words from the verse meant to her.  For one thing, she would no longer waste her time on things that weren't important in God's eyes. When all the things she'd done in her life were finally judged by God, she wanted them to be found worthwhile.  She wanted them to be seen as gold and silver, not hay and stubble. For another thing, she would never again worry about what people thought of her.  If what she was doing was pleasing to God, that would be enough for her.  If other people, even other Christians, didn't want to walk with beggars, that was their business, but Amy would walk with them, and she would walk proudly."


The sentence leaped off the page and into my soul:  When all the things she'd done in her life were finally judged by God, she wanted them to be found worthwhile.


May my every moment, every breath, every bit of energy and resource be spent on things that are important in God's eyes.  May I only do those things that will be found worthwhile to Him.  All else is hay and stubble that will burn and be forever gone...wasted time, wasted resources, wasted life.




***Quotes taken from Amy Carmichael, Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet and Geoff Benge***