LIfestyle of Service

Okay this is long, but my newly 23 year old mind is crankin’ today! 

Today at church we were talking in my Sunday school class about the people Jesus chose to hang out with, you know sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, widows, poor people, fishermen, lepers….  He was constantly serving these people, every day! Sure He spent some time at home growing up, but His lifestyle was one of sacrifice and service.  So often I hear or even say things myself like:  “Well, I tried to help this single mom for a while, but it was just too time consuming.”  Or “If I start helping people, they’ll take advantage of me.” Or “If I do things for people, they will just stop trying to help themselves because letting me do it is easier.”

Even if those thoughts ARE accurate, how should they motivate our actions?  Surely not to inaction or to the common decision to “take a break from helping out” because we’re overworked.   Maybe the cliché phrase “a hand up is better than a hand out” is accurate.  Maybe the concept “give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for life” is worth considering.  However, are these just easy ways to get us out of helping those around us?  Do we truly plan to give a “hand up” or “teach”??? It does take much more time to truly become involved in someone’s life, teaching and loving them than just sending a check to some mission organization.

What struck me is that we often think we have satisfied some “quota” of serving after a few hours a week being poured into others.  Ever heard the saying, “good deed of the day”???  Yet, if we are to model our lives after Jesus, that is nowhere near a reflection of His choices.  Jesus lived a LIFESTYLE of service and sacrifice.  Not because He had the human strength to always be serving others, but because He sought God for strength. Yes, the Son of God sought time with God to, in essence, recharge His bodily strength. 

Luke 6:12 says, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”

Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

So, if we rely on our own strength to serve others….well, it’s no wonder people poop out at 2-3 hours a week.  However, if we seek the strength that comes directly from the God of the universe, there-in lies the power to become imitators of Christ who live a lifestyle of service. If we sit around wondering if our service is perfect, I’m guessing we’ll never actually serve.

James 1:4-5 “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

Living a lifestyle of service won’t be easy, it’s not glamorous, beautiful, and sometimes not even satisfying.  It’s a choice and it’s not for our praise. It often takes humility and yes sometimes it wears us out and drags us down. Our own ideas, won’t always suffice, but we have a giving and gracious Father in heaven just waiting to lavish His blessings on our open hearts.

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Can I truly live a lifestyle of service???   I know that if I do it will never come of my own strength.  Yes, I will try to love my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, but in the end, that is still small. To truly live it out I need the unending strength that flows from my Father.  I need to be an open vessel willing and eager to let the Holy Spirit work in and through me!  Thus, I find myself daily placing myself under the fountain of God’s grace, bending low to humble myself, admitting my weaknesses before the almighty creator of the heavens and the earth!

2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Wow, that’s the God I serve, one who GAVE HIMSELF up for me, though I don’t deserve, I AM LOVED! There is NO other like my God!!!!