Serve the Lord with gladness:
come before his presence with singing.
Psalm 100:2
Life is
busy. We can all attest to the truth of that statement. Helping our siblings,
meeting the needs of friends, running errands for parents, solving “technical
difficulties”, visiting the elderly, using our musical and speaking abilities
to comfort others—all these are examples of just ordinary life.
Sometimes,
though, I think we get caught up in the actual doing of the work, that we forget what it really is: serving. We
also forget Who we are serving: the
King of Kings. And so, I hope that this will be a written reminder and
encouragement to you to keep your focus on the One you are serving. The One who
has called you out of darkness, and into His marvelous light. The One who
modeled service as no man did, has, or ever will—and it is we who are called to
be “little Christs”—to model that service here on earth.
Who
are you serving?
Yes, we
as believers have the head knowledge that “everything is done to the glory of
God”, but do we really recognize that it is the Christ, the Son of the living
God that we are serving? The One who is…
Highest of majesty
Brilliant in splendor
Jesus, Creator, Redeemer of man
Fullness of God, He is One with
the Father.
Just
realizing the complete awesomeness of the King of Kings, causes us to step back
and rethink who we really are as finite humans. It is the Creator of our very
lives Who sanctifies us for His use [Jeremiah 1:5; Hebrews 10:10]; the High
Priest who lives to make intercession for us [Hebrews 7:25]; the One who knows
our sin like no other, and yet chooses to use us in spite of who we are. [2
Corinthians 12:9] The God Who rescued us—yes, that’s Who we serve.
When
are you serving Him?
As believers,
we are Christ’s servants, not just when we feel like it, not just when life is
going smoothly, and not just when we think we know the outline of the near
future. After we have surrendered our lives to the Lord, our time, talents, and
treasures are not our own anymore. Our service to Him is to be constant and
everlasting. Even when we have passed through Heaven’s gates, we will join the
thousands before us in serving Him and worshipping at His feet. For now, our
service is here on earth.
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord to Thee.
Take my moments and by days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise
Our
moments and our days all belong to Him--whether it’s doing the laundry for the
thousandth time or answering the call to minister in another country. We don’t
“belong” to ourselves. We are God’s, and He asks—no, He demands—that each and
every moment be lived in service to Him. [1 Corinthians 6:19-20]
Where
are you serving Him?
We can
start right where we are. Some of us may be at home, at work, in church—wherever
we may be physically at this present moment, that is where we are to serve Him.
The Priests of the Old Testament were given the task of serving specifically in
the temple. The church is commanded to serve each other. [Galatians 5:13; 1
Peter 4:10] We should not be limited geographically, financially, or in any other
way, in serving the Lord. Sometimes this may call for us to be spontaneous, and
temporarily leave off our own plans to serve someone in need. Service starts
right where we are, and for many of us that should begin in our own homes, serving
our family—siblings, parents, and/or spouses—while learning to surrender our
own schedules to another’s in order to show the love of Christ.
Why
are you serving Him?
Why are you serving Him? Is it so that
others will see your good works and glorify you? Or is your work done heartily
to the Lord? [Colossians 3:23-24] We aren’t to boast about what we accomplish, how
much time we “give up” for someone, or about some great thing that we did for
the world. Our reward lies in heaven—and inheritance with our heavenly Father.
The unbelieving world should see our
works, but our accomplishments should provide them a reason to glorify Christ.
[Matthew 5:16] For it is nothing in us that accomplishes anything, but only by
His strength that we can do all things. [Philippians 4:13] Unto Him we live and
serve. [2 Corinthians 5:15]
How
are you serving Him?
As
Joshua commanded the Israelites, so we must also “fear the Lord, and serve him
in sincerity and in truth”. [Joshua 24:14; 1 Samuel 12:24] Our service to Him
must be genuine—not a hypocritical sort or a habit forced on us by someone
else—but in faithfulness to the Lord because of what He has done for us.
Mark
9:35 instructs us to be the servant of all; not showing partiality to those we
“like” best, but giving to anyone out of love for God. This will involve
humility, just as Christ took on the form of a humble servant—even to the point
of death. [Philippians 2:4-8]
We are
to serve the Lord with singleness of heart. Jesus quoted the Old Testament in
His refutation of Satan’s bribes: “Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” [Matthew
4:10, emphasis mine] We will have to consciously destroy the sinful idols in
our life on a daily basis, in order that we might take up our crosses and
follow Him in servitude. We cannot serve the world and God, but must hate the
one and cleave to the other. [Luke 16:13]
The
service God requires of us, which encompasses all the tiny details of life, is
summed up in Romans 12:1, which states: “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.” Our ultimate service to God lies in our surrendering of our lives
as a sacrifice to our Redeemer. When we have allowed Him and the Holy Spirit to
indwell our lives, we are putting Him on the throne of our hearts and
submitting our thoughts, actions, and motives to His control; it should be our
desire to surrender all things to Him. We will fail, guaranteed; but by
consistently surrendering all to Him, we can then serve Him as He served us.
Conclusion:
Think
about this: the creatures in this universe—we who have sinned on every
imaginable level—are some who have been redeemed, called out, and set-apart to
serve the sovereign Creator. The Messiah chose to exemplify the ultimate
example of service (dying for a sinful world), so we might understand, as best we
can, how to lay down our lives for one other. The Beloved of the Father chose
to give life to the earth and its inhabitants so that they might more fully
glorify Him and serve Him—in spite of their sin. And not just to serve, but to
love Him with all of our hearts.
“And now, Israel, what doth the
Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his
ways, and to love him, an d to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes,
which I command thee this day for thy good?” [Deuteronomy 10:11-12]
May we
all be able to say:
“As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord.”[Joshua
24:15]
Blessings,
Kaleigh
*This article was originally written to be published in this newsletter. You can find their website here.
*This article was originally written to be published in this newsletter. You can find their website here.
