Another thought that meets us is how often it is in lesser things we fail.
In order to fully appreciate that I ask you to put the accent on one hour.
Had He asked them to watch through the livelong night with Him, that might have been a high and arduous service.
But to ask their vigilance for sixty minutes surely was a very small demand, yet it was there that the disciples failed.
In the last great service Peter did not fail Him, for Peter was crucified for Christ.
James, too, laid down his life for Him, and John went to exile in the Isle of Patmos.
Where they all failed was in the lesser thing, in the duty that was comparatively small - what, could ye not watch with Me one hour?
And perhaps it is there most often that we fail in our loving companionship with Christ.
Perhaps it is there that love most often fails.
In our fellowship with the Lord Jesus we may be ready and eager for the greatest sacrifice, and yet we cannot watch with Him one hour.
In those small self-denials which are possible with every passing day, in patience and appreciative sympathy within the shelter and secrecy of home, in the rendering of those little kindnesses which are more to many hearts than gold or silver, how often we fail as those disciples did.
Great services reveal our possibilities;
Little services reveal our consecration.
Jesus places the emphasis of heaven on him who is faithful in the least.
Had these disciples watched for that one hour they would have rendered a service far beyond their dreams.
That is true of everyone of us.
~George H. Morrison~
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