THE LABOR OF LOVE (2)
In serving the Lord we may be very enthusiastic for one week, but after that we may become exhausted. Among us there is the need of laboring, and there is the need of endurance. From the beginning, when I began to speak concerning the matter of the vital groups, I stressed the need for endurance. As long as we can get one person saved in three hundred sixty-five days, that is wonderful. I doubt that many of us can boast that although we have been laboring for two and a half years and have not gained anyone, we are still laboring. If this is your case, you will be blessed. You will see that in the end you will be the most fruitful one.
To practice the vital groups we must be vital to the extent that we are willing to labor in any way and at any cost. This requires us to endure. If you go to visit someone consistently for half a year and nothing happens, you should keep going. If you labor much and nothing happens, will something happen if you cease your labor? Seemingly, your labor has been in vain, because for six months you have not seen any result. But for the long run, there will be a result.
Our labor should be a labor of love. This love indicates that we love not only the Lord but also the saints. We love the stronger ones, and we love the weaker ones. We love sinners; we love our friends; and we love our relatives, our classmates, and our colleagues. We simply love people. Love is the motivating power of our labor. Because of this love we prefer to put aside many other things and to labor. We do not know who the fruit will be and from where and when it will come. We only know to labor.
Dear saints, we should not be shortsighted. We need to have a view for the long run. We may be concerned because, after practicing the new way for some time, it seems that thus far we have seen little fruit. However, the fruit that is quick to come in will also be quick to be absent. The most enduring fruit is the fruit that is borne slowly. If within one week we gain one as a fruit, we should know that such a fruit may not live long. However, if we spend two years to gain one, that one would never forget all the time that we spent laboring on him.
On the one hand, time passes quickly; on the other hand, it passes very slowly. But those who labor do not care for the passing of time. They care only for their labor. They care only to contact people.
We are a blessed people. Wherever we go, blessing goes with us. Whomever we visit will be visited by God’s blessing. We must believe this. Those whom we visit will never consider our visit as something ordinary. They may not say anything, but within them a deep impression will be sown into their being. Even if we do not say anything, they know what our intention is in visiting them. They know that our intention is to gain them for Christ. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 12, pp. 358-361)
The church in Zamboanga 