Tag: servants

The Call and the Power to Serve

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

The life of Jesus Christ was not the life of a mere man, but the life of a divine man who gave up His deity and His royalty in order to accept the calling of Almighty God to be the blood sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Jesus took on this calling freely and voluntarily that He might secure our legal standing in the kingdom of God.

The moment that we accepted the salvation that Jesus made possible when He laid down His life for us, we were given the power and the calling to lay down our lives day after day for the people around us. This sacrificial calling is contrary to our human nature. Our flesh will fight us on every occasion, be it large or small, when we seek to emulate Jesus’ love for us in our service to others. And certainly, Satan will do his part to discourage us too.

Yet we can and will overcome the urges of Satan and our flesh, if we learn to rely on the urgings of the Holy Spirit. For we were not only given the calling to serve, we were also given the power to serve. We were given the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to dwell within us. All we have to do is let the Spirit within us flow out of us.

Let us learn to love others as we love ourselves. Let us give up our lives in service to others. Let us reveal to the world the greater love that dwells within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son Jesus to die for us so that we would not remain separated from You for all eternity because of our sins. We praise Your Name for extending Your mercy so that we could accept the salvation that we did not earn and do not deserve. We pray, Father God, that the fullness of Your Holy Spirit will flow from us each day. May we learn to lay down our lives each day so that others may see the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus. We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Preparing to Receive Our King

Luke 12:40
You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

God’s Holy Word inspires us to turn our thoughts toward the day that Jesus will return to the earth. This will be a great and magnificent day for which all of us need to make ourselves ready. On His arrival day, the Lord will separate those who knew Him and served Him from those who did not. We certainly want to be in the group that He separates for life in His Kingdom.

Our preparation for an uncertain time and date can be complicated. Our human nature makes it difficult for us to prepare for a time in the future that we cannot clearly mark on our calendars. We may even be uncertain about how we should prepare for the arrival of the King of Kings. To further complicate our preparation, we can get lost in all the demanding needs of this world and lose sight of the right way to prepare for our coming King. It is important for us to understand that we can simplify the process of making ourselves ready for Our Coming King. All we need to do is examine whether we are pursuing this world or the kingdom of God. Then we must be aware of and committed to the precept that we are not only waiting servants, but that we are also working servants as we wait.

The Lord in His mercy, by His Word, directly instructed us in the following simple ways to prepare for His coming. He taught us that those who feed Him when He is hungry, give Him drink when He is thirsty, clothe Him when He is in need and visit Him when He is sick or in prison will be the ones that inherit His Kingdom. He added that even though we may not see Him in these conditions that when we serve those who are in these conditions, we are serving Him.

Let us go out and be working servants as we wait on the arrival of Our King, Jesus. Let us find His presence and serve Him in the faces of the world that surrounds us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Holy Word prepares us to receive Our King, Jesus Christ. Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may see the opportunities to serve Our King every day. Prepare our hearts, Lord, to freely give of ourselves to others just as we would if we were serving Jesus Himself. May the presence of the Holy Spirit within us be Our Guiding Light. We ask all these things in the name of the One who rewards those that seek and serve Him, Jesus Christ.

God Has Commissioned All of Us to Serve

Isaiah 49:5
And now the LORD speaks–the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

We learn three important things from the prophet Isaiah that pertained not only to him but to all of us:

God created us. The entire human race was created to serve and glorify God forever. Through God’s grace we were given life so that we may be one of His servants here on earth. Through God’s mercy we were granted eternal life so that we may praise and glorify Him in His eternal kingdom forever.

God commissioned all of us to serve Him. While our calling may be different from the commission of Isaiah, it is just as important in God’s eyes. We have all been uniquely gifted to fulfill the will of Our Heavenly Father and His plan for our lives. Our unique service to Him will be on earth as it will be in heaven.

God will give us all we need to fulfill our commission. Through Our Savior, Jesus Christ, we shall have the strength and capability to do the work that we have been called to do. We shall have the protection that we need to overcome our enemies. We shall have the comfort that we need to rise above our discouragements. It will all be fulfilled according to His promises and His indwelling in us. Through it all, He will complete His work in us so that we are prepared for our heavenly duties.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s unique plan for our lives. Let us cling to Our Savior who waits to prepare us, protect us and strengthen us so that our lives may glorify the Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have bestowed on us through Your Son, Jesus. We rejoice in knowing that You have a wonderful plan for our lives that will bring praise and glory to You forever. We pray, Lord, that You will bring us to a place of repentance so that we may turn away from all the things in our lives that displease You and turn toward all the things that Your Holy Spirit reveals to us. May it all be for Your eternal glory. We ask all these things in the name of the One who strengthens us, Jesus Christ.

The Process of Individual and Corporate Increase

1 Thessalonians 3:12
And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word increase means to become or make greater in size, amount, intensity or degree. It can be assumed that Paul was speaking to all these nuances held in the definition of the word increase when He was writing to the Thessalonians.

It is certain that Paul was encouraging the Thessalonians to continue to increase in numbers just as all the other early Christian churches were doing. It was his prayer that the Lord would cause them to increase through the abounding love that they would have for one another and for the world around them.

It is just as certain that Paul was also teaching that as the Lord provided for their increase in numbers that He would necessarily provide them with an increase in the intensity and fullness of His love. Thus these early Christians would have the increase in the amount of love that they would need to win the world for Jesus Christ. It would, in fact, be their cup spilling over with His perfect love that would draw others to their church and to Christ Himself.

And it would also be in accordance with all of Paul’s other teachings for him to be praying that the Lord would increase the Thessalonians in one other area. Paul was surely praying that there would be an increase in the degree of holiness, humility, knowledge and spiritual joy that would be poured out upon the Thessalonians in the form of the grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Their increase as individuals was critical to the growth of the Body of Christ.

And so it is with us. God calls us to serve Him. He calls each of us to pour out His perfect love to the world around us so that the Body of Christ may increase. Subsequent to our obedience, He adds to us and grows us according to His good and perfect will and purpose for our lives. This process of individual and corporate increase is continuous throughout our lifetimes.

Let us abound in love for one another. Let us share our love for Christ so that others may be drawn to Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the good and perfect purposes that You have for our lives. We rejoice in knowing that we will be able to continually serve You, not only on this earth, but also on into eternity. We pray that You will show us where You are calling us to pour out Your perfect love. Father, we ask that we never tire of the service that is at hand. May we always increase in our service to Your kingdom. We pray, Lord, that we may also increase in our holiness as we serve You. We ask all these things in the name of our holy and awesome Savior, Jesus Christ.