14.Look on the Fields

From, "My Heart's Desire"
By Maynard A. Force

Look on the Fields
Lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are already white unto harvest.
John 4. 35.

"Look on the Fields," admonishes our Saviour. They are in desperate need of our attention just now. He is referring to the vast fields of humanity, this world of ours. "They are already white unto harvest." A harvest field can ripen quickly after it reaches a certain stage. This is what happened the day Jesus first spoke these words. Therefore He wanted His disciples to be harvest-conscious.

The disciples had been interested chiefly in themselves. They had just returned from the village of Sychar, where they had gone to "buy food." Little did they realize as they walked the streets of this despised village that one of the greatest awakenings in Jesus' ministry would take place there. When they mingled with the people, they did not think of the possibility that they might become believers in Jesus Christ. They had come for the sole purpose of getting something out of this place for themselves. It never dawned on them they had something to give these people that was far more important than daily bread. This is a common mistake. Many are the followers of Christ today who look upon their places of work just in terms of what they can carry out. It never dawns upon them that their main purpose for being there is not the pay checks they can carry out, but the testimony they can carry in.

When Christians leave Christ out of their daily places of work, their main ambition then is to receive and not to give. Then the very principle upon which a Christian thrives is lost. For "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20. 35). No one who claims to be a follower of Christ has any right to go in pursuit of his daily bread without having Christ's presence go with him. How dare we accept any position, regardless of salary, without having first been led there by Christ! This explains why there are practically no awakenings in factories, shops, offices, schools, and other places where Christians work today. The apostle Paul could say, "For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1. 21). Should not that be our motto, too? Would it not also imply, "For me to work is Christ"?

The awakening at Sychar did not come through the disciples. They did not return with encouraging reports that these people were hungry for the Word of God. They walked the streets of this village, saw and talked to the people, left a few coins in exchange for some food, and were ready to move on. They were satisfied that their work was done. How little it takes to satisfy some of us! Jesus used the person in Sychar one would least expect to be His witness, rather than these disciples. It was the testimony of the sinful Samaritan woman, "Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did," that brought souls to Christ. After she had met with Jesus she had more to say for Him than all the disciples.

This is indeed a warning to every Christian. Will our Lord have to repeat the same thing today? Will He have to raise up someone poor and despised, like the Samaritan woman, to bring about an awakening in the place where we earn our daily bread, because we who claim to be His followers are so blind? Surely He has given us ample time, just as He did the disciples then.

Thus we have seen that the place where we get our daily bread is much like Sychar. It needs Christ. We are the ones appointed to bring Him there. We go there, of course, to earn our daily bread, but that is not our main purpose for being there. This place is our mission field. We are admonished today to "look on the fields," for Christ wants to do a great work there. Perhaps our Sychar, too, is "white already unto harvest."