Issachar is a rawboned donkey
lying down among the sheep pens.
When he sees how good is his resting place
and how pleasant is his land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
and submit to forced labor.

Cyril Rollinson was one of the finest men I’ve known. He was an elder and church secretary at ‘Bridge Street’ in Leeds. He’d been a works manager, but in his retirement he largely devoted his time and talents to serving the local church. When I knew him he was a widower, but I understand his wife had sometimes joked that he ‘should take his bed down there!”(i.e. to the church building. He spent so much time working in it and on it). It seems to me he was pretty much a full time worker, but in a voluntary capacity. When someone commented on how much he did to serve the church, his answer was, ‘I’ve got a good Master!’ He loved the Lord who had saved him. That much was evident. He didn’t just work to fill his time. His service was the overflow of a loving, thankful heart. The offering of Cyril’s life laid down was, I am convinced ‘in view of God’s mercy’ (Rom.12:1).

Can you see why I thought about him as I considered these words about Issachar? When you experience the generosity of God – His lavish goodness – it surely makes you want to serve Him with all your heart.

Somebody said, ‘You can trust the Man who died for you.’ We need not fear to be fully devoted to the One who loves us so much, He gave us life for us. Don’t be afraid of full devotion to Jesus. Don’t hang on to your life. Climb on to the ‘altar’ as a ‘living sacrifice, and prove that God’s will is ‘good, pleasing and perfect’ (See Romans 12:1,2)