3676 — What Does It Mean?
By Editor
In the last reading for the recent week of prayer, there is a statement to this effect: "Shall we not, then, on the last day of this week, with devotion consecrate ourselves and everything we have to the Lord?" Does this mean that we shall sell everything we have, and give the money to missions, and we ourselves go as missionaries among our fellow men? It might mean that, and it might not mean that. Presumably it would not mean that, for we might not be ready to go at all. God tests missionaries for foreign lands by their work in the home land. He might not call for everything that we have to-day; He might call for it to-morrow. Some men may have property that would develop far more for God if properly used and increased, and the increase given, than to sell it. Sometimes we could put property in the market and realize almost nothing from it, but we could secure profits in the proper use of that, which would enable us to do far more for God, and our talent may lie in doing that very thing. These are the things which each individual soul himself must consider. Sometimes God calls Barnabas, and Barnabas gives all that he has, and the Lord sends him on a foreign mission. Sometimes He may call some other man who has large property, and ask him to devote all the income of that property, beyond his own living, to foreign missions, and there are those who are doing that, and God is equally blessing both cases. What we want to be sure of is that all is laid on God's altar, to use for Him as seems wise and best.