Miriam Booth, daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army, was a brilliant and cultured woman who began her Christian work with great promise and unusual success. Very soon, however, disease brought her to the point of death. A friend told her it seemed a pity that a woman of her capabilities should be hindered by sickness from doing the Lord’s work. With deep insight and gentle grace, Miriam replied, “It’s wonderful to do the Lord’s work, but it’s greater still to do the Lord’s will!”

Commenting on John 17:4, blind minister and hymnwriter George Matheson said, “Was the work of the Master indeed done? Was not His heaviest task yet to come? He had not yet met the dread hour of death. Why did He say, then, that His work was done? It was because He knew that when the will is given, the battle is ended! . . . The cup which our Father gives us to drink is a cup of the will. It is easy for the lips to drain it when once the heart has accepted it. . . .The act is easy after the choice.”

Yes, that is where the battle lies. If, like Jesus, we delight to do the Father’s will, then the work He assigns will be done with grace and without hesitation, no matter what the personal sacrifice may be.

  — Henry G. Bosch