See what a work the Lord foreshadowed when He said those simple words, “I am going there to prepare a place for you.” What sort of a place are you aiming at? Yes, you would rather be a doorkeeper there than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. But this is not now the question. Would you prefer to be a doorkeeper to being an ambassador? Would you prefer to serve self, and pleasure, and wealth on earth, and be of little or no use hereafter; or will you choose to live for Christ heart and soul, forgetting things past and pressing on toward the mark, keen and strong. Which? Christ is preparing your place. He is, to that end, watching your course on earth. The sons of Zebedee demanded to sit on the right and left of the King Himself. Do not follow the other disciples in their anger at this request. It is well to aim high. It is contemptible to seek merely to “get saved.” But remember our Lord’s reply to the disciples, “Can ye drink of My cup, and be baptized with My baptism?” Ah, that is it! We are carving out our own destiny every moment. The Judgment Seat of Christ will settle all. There will be no respect of persons there. But the faithful servant will take a higher place and portion, and the slothful and worldly will be saved, that is all.
"Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me...?" John 14:9 It is of the greatest importance for the Lord's children to recognize fully that, above all other things, His object is that they should know Him. This is the all-governing end of all His dealings with us. This is the greatest of all our needs. Our minds are so often occupied with service and work; we think that doing things for the Lord is the chief object of life. We are concerned about our lifework, or ministry. We think of equipment for it in terms of study and knowledge of things. Soul-winning, or teaching believers, or setting people to work, are so much in the foreground. Bible study and knowledge of the Scriptures, with efficiency in the matter of leading in Christian service as the end in view, are the matters of pressing importance with all. All well and good, for these are important matters; but, back of everything that the Lord is more concerned about our knowing Him than about anything else. It is very possible to have a wonderful grasp on the Scriptures, a comprehensive and intimate familiarity with doctrine; to stand for cardinal verities of the faith; to be an unceasing worker in Christian service; to have a great devotion of the salvation of men, and yet, alas, to have a very inadequate and limited personal knowledge of God within. So often the Lord has to take away our work that we may discover Him. The ultimate value of everything is not the information which we give, not the amount of work that we do, not the measure of truth that we possess, but just the fact that we know the Lord in a deep and mighty way. This is the on thing that will remain when all else passes.
A little while and we are in eternity; before we find ourselves there, let us do much for Christ.
Brethren, here is the path to the higher life. Down, lower down! This was what Jesus ever said to the disciples who were thinking of being great in the kingdom, and of sitting on His right hand and His left. Seek not, ask not for exaltation; that is God's work. Look to it that you abase and humble yourselves, and take no place before God or man but that of servant; that is your work; let that be your one purpose and prayer. God is faithful. Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless. He that humbles himself-that must be our one care shall be exalted; that is God's care; by His mighty power and in His great love He will do it.