How Shall We Serve?

Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’  Matthew 25:40 (CEB)

Everywhere you look these days there are opportunities to serve our fellow man.  It may be through volunteering and giving of your time or by giving financially.  The ads on TV make it very easy to become involved particularly if you want to donate money. 

We have been called to service by Jesus to show others His love.  We see one scriptural example in 1 Peter 4:10, “And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts.” (CEB)   We have all been given different gifts and here we see that we are to use those gifts as we serve others in Jesus’ name.  Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? 

I can cook, so I can share a meal with someone.  I pray that the devotions I have written have touched someone and I consider them, too a type of service.  But as I read a devotion myself recently a statement by an anonymous author jumped out at me and has been on my mind ever since.  It says simply, “as believers, we must spend time with Jesus before we spend time for Him.”  Whoa!  That hits home, stepped on my toes and set me to thinking about how much time and the quality of that time that I am spending with Jesus each day.  I confess, I fall short.

My eyes have been opened by this simple truth and I am making a conscious effort to carve out my time in the mornings to spend time in the Word and in prayer.  Some days it’s easier said than done.  I think the more I do this the more Satan tries to sabotage my time.   Without the time spent with Jesus is the time we think we’re spending for Him really for Him?  That is a sobering thought.  I am thankful for Him showing me this truth so that I can be a good manager of the gifts I have been given.

Christ set the ultimate example of service when he submitted to death on our behalf.  May I suggest that we use Philippians 2:3-8 and personalize it as a helpful prayer?  This passage is from the ESV Study Bible, changes are mine.

May I do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than myself.  Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Amen