Overcoming: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

Neglect and Loneliness

Doesn't your heart break for the hamsters that run around in those little wire wheels? They motor as fast as their little legs can move, but they never get anywhere. I've never yet met a hamster who feels a great sense of personal accomplishment.

Are you a hamster? Or at least feel like one? Do your efforts go unrecognized, unappreciated, unnoticed? Do you run in circles? Do you toil in vain? Do other people always seem to get all the attention? Are you dying for somebody to clap and cheer for you just once? Do you know the sadness of feeling alone in a crowd?

Okay--stop right there. Recall for a second just who is it you're working for? Whose approval do you need first? Didn't I once hear you say that the Lord was the center of your life? Well, then. Here is his shout of approval on all those who humbly (and usually anonymously) serve others in his name: "Well done, good and faithful servant! . . . Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:21,40).

Take this to the bank: God sees. God remembers. Your time will come.