A Mandate from God is Serving Others

As Christians, we are called on by God to the role of serving others — and not only in the area of finances. We are to serve others with every opportunity we can find, and to always be looking for opportunities to do so. And next to witnessing to the testimony of the Gospel, it is a primary function as children of God as well as loving God with all of our hearts and souls and minds.

When we think of serving others, we often think of getting involved in charities or giving money to homeless people on the side of the street. However, serving is so much more than that. It is not something we do once in a while. It is a way of life.

Always have the thought of service to others in your heart, every waking moment of every day. There are all kinds of unexpected ways to go about this. You may not even realize you are doing it at times. For example, getting up before your children and making them breakfast and fixing their lunchboxes for school is serving. Making dinner for your family or buying groceries for your housebound grandmother is serving.

We are serving when we allow someone to get in front of us in traffic or let someone with fewer items get in front of us in line at the grocery store. Even picking up something that an old person dropped and handing it to them or retrieving a ball from a roof for a child are all ways of serving others as God intended, if done with the right motives.

However, be careful. If we serve because it makes us feel better, than no reward will be set aside for us. It is for a selfish reason … that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Matthew 6:2.

Do it out of a heartfelt desire for, and love of, God. We are to serve for his pleasure, not ours.

The whole point of serving others is to think of the needs of others before we think of our own. As parents, we are used to doing that with our children, but we often forget to do it in other parts of our daily lives. We may become short-tempered with strangers, act selfishly in public, and decide that we deserve something more than someone else and grab that sweater out from under the reaching hands of someone else at a department store sale.

When tempted to be selfish, just remember how much God gave to us. It should be all we need to soften our hearts and serve as we were meant to as we serve God by serving others.

Somewhere around age 40 a strange shift happened.  When I was younger, I literally fed on being busy.  And I’m not talking about a healthy busy…you know, living with purpose – having a few places to go, some people to see, etc.  No, I’m talking about insane busy – life on overdrive 24/7.  And I loved it!  I loved having every single moment so compressed that even Einstein would have said, “If this woman adds even 15 more seconds of activity to her day, she is going to upset the time continuum!”

I remember one day in particular.  I was working for a Los Angeles radio station and I was a little late to an appointment (first time ever) so I was flying down the 5 Freeway (just a few miles over the speed limit).  Well, I wasn’t exactly behind schedule – let’s just say I didn’t have an extra 30 seconds to spare.  I was weaving around the “slow pokes” with amazing skill …when a thought flashed across my mind.  ”I am really an important person because I have an appointment!  And better yet, it’s not my only appointment, I have lots of appointments which is why I’m barely going to make it to this one on time.  I have really arrived – I’m busy so I’m important!”

Now of course it is fun to have purpose and commitments, etc, but I hope you can see that this attitude was a little off.  And here’s the thing…I really believed it.

Well, again, somewhere around 40 this vague cloud of exhaustion started following me everywhere I went as I sped around on overdrive.  I still believed that being busy meant I had value, but the crazy pace was beginning to wear on me.  After a few years, I still kept up my workday pace, but I started to find myself withdrawing at nights and on weekends.  At first it was just one night a week, but it slowly grew to the point I almost resented having to make any social plans at all…didn’t want to be pinned in.  What if when that scheduled time came around I didn’t feel like it? Everyone wants something from me and I have nothing left to give!  “I gave at the office” took on a whole new meaning.

Again, as I noted this growing behavior, I grew to like it.  Ok, that’s just me – I’m maturing.  But then it seemed that I couldn’t get enough time alone and away from the crowd.  If I had too many social activities on a weekend I would find my anxiety rise exponentially – which also would guarantee a very short fuse the entire next week.  I became aware of how much time I needed to “recoup” from all the workday “performing” and all that I thought others demanded of me.

Well, I’m not a total recluse today, and don’t get me wrong – I know I need my friends probably more than they need me.  But I do still find myself needing to retreat and give myself plenty of unstructured “down time.”  When I don’t, all the activity becomes completely meaningless…even depressing.  I was enjoying some of this precious alone time rattling around in the garden a few Saturdays ago.  Then I remembered a social event I had committed to. Agh!  I watched myself instantly begin brainstorming ways to get out of it, and of course, the internal angst level started rising.

That’s when I thought of Him.  How did Jesus handle it?  How could He stand all those crowds, people pressing in on every side, following Him everywhere, trying to catch Him in His words – with not a second to Himself?  How did He do it!? 

Well, first of all, He snuck off regularly to be alone and talk with the Father. But often His compassion for the overwheming needs of the crowds caused Him to postpone His solitude and keep going.  But how did He do it? Sometimes I feel that I just can’t handle another detour, another glitch, another interruption! 

Why did He push Himself?  I mean, He already had the great networking thing of the 12 apostles going.  Couldn’t they just pass along His teachings?  Endless lines of people that wanted something from Him! Ugh!  How could He stand it?

But then it hit me – He pushed Himself, He kept moving to the next town, and the next town and ketp healing, kept teaching…  Why?  I think He pushed Himself because in each incident He had someone’s face on His mind – someone waiting in the next town who needed to hear about the love of the Father…and He had to get there. He had appointments!  Oh, they didn’t think they had appointments.  No, they didn’t know, but He did. I think Jesus had individuals’ faces on His mind and on His heart.  He knew their hurts and confusions, their hopes, their disillusionments. 

He not only knew the people who would be changed forever with a word, or even a glance, but He knew exactly where each would notice Him and what would catch their eye or ear.  Yes, these people were usually in crowds, but they were individuals to Him…individuals that He loved.

I wonder if He would have walked all night to meet with me?  Well, the Bible tells me that He did more than that – He died for me. 

So how can we follow Jesus’ example and have an ongoing reserve to help us balance out difficult people, ongoing pressures and crazy schedules?  By spending time with Him.  “But I’m so busy already!” you say.  Yes, I understand…I am too.  But I promie you that the 15 minutes you spend with God will make the rest of your 23.75 hours flow much more smoothly!  He will literally go before you, like a linebacker – knocking pesky time and energy tacklers out of your way.  Remember what He did with the few fish and loaves of bread?  He can do the same wth your time and your life.

Learning the discipline of setting time aside daily for uninterrupted communion with God Almighty was difficult for me. Like dieting or quitting cigarettes, I started and failed many many times.  But the pain and longing in my heart to not be a ”performance” saint only, but to develop a real relationship with God drove me to keep trying. 

Oh, I’m not perfect now.  I still go through times when I just don’t think I can stand another moment with so-in-so at the job, or another church event, or… (you fill in the blank).  But He has taught me that I can trust Him to redeem my investment of time for Him.   And more than that – when I ask Him, He shows me what He sees in those difficult people, and what I still don’t “get” I just surrender to Him.  God help us all to walk in the Spirit and see the world and all his precious masterpieces (humans, that is) through His eyes.  But you can’t do it on the fly. Give Him time to speak to you daily.

Remember, resetting your schedule and priorities for God can seem difficult.  But difficult is not impossible…and in this case – so worth it! 

Also see Seeking God, Laziness, Success, Peace, Trusting God, Money, How to succeed in tough economic times

Shining Perspective

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”~Matthew 19:26

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes. How quickly I can forget the miracles that God has richly blessed me with. Recently I have experienced so much of God’s grace. The precious gift of God’s grace is truly a miracle that is so easily taken for granted. His hand has guided my every step and even when I had nothing to put forth, God filled up the space with His amazing grace.

I have come to the end of my first challenging semester in college. I think going back to school after taking 15 years off is a struggle in itself. Taking two classes and a lab, working full time, being a wife, a mother and having all of the commitments that go along with those rolls is well, crazy to say the least. Of course, I didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t do it. I know now it was not the wisest choice to take two classes. I could have just taken one class. However, I would have missed an opportunity to watch Romans 8:28 in action. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I watched God make all things work together for my good. I would have missed out on the immense grace that overflowed throughout every difficult day that I put one foot in front of the other. Psalm 34:8 says “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” I saw, felt, tasted and tested God’s promise for myself. By trusting God I was touched by him in a way I never would have been, if I had not made the decisions I did. Some people might say I just took a leap of faith.

How is it so easy to forget? How can you possibly forget in such a short amount of time?  Circumstances come and knock you around and before you know it they are in the spotlight and somehow you have lost sight of the miraculous events that you have been privileged to taste. I witnessed the Lord’s hand upon all that I had been doing for months. I watched in awe as I would pass a test I had no business passing. I felt His overwhelming presence as I sat through the exam. I knew every time I received a test back, the Lord gave me that grade. There is no way possible that I could accomplish what I have. Only by the grace of God could I successfully have made it through this semester.

I still forgot. I let circumstances such as, being sick, the stress of preparing for Christmas (yes, Christmas, you know the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Prince of Peace) and the everyday chaos of this world blind me from the miraculous grace I had experienced. I let the circumstances that arose, change my view.

I have been miserable because I have been focusing on my circumstances and allowing them to dictate all my choices, my mood, my life. Today, I went online to see what books I needed to order for next semester. Once I was there, I was distracted; or shall I say God had something for me to see. I ran across my grades for the semester. That is when I was reminded how amazing God has been to me and how grateful I am for what I had just experienced. My joy is in full bloom as I count the blessings of the lessons I have learned. My hope is renewed as I relive the moments where God held my hand and once again did not fail me. My faith has grown as I have seen firsthand that God makes all things work together for my good, even when I make poor decisions.

What miracles has God done in your life? Are you counting them? Or are you letting them get lost in your circumstances? God is faithful and there is nothing too hard for him. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” Mark 9:23 What do you believe? Have you tasted and seen for yourself how great the love of God is?

When I became a Christian, just after I arrived here in the USA, I was taught the lesson of tithing and I never forgot it.  My wife, then my girlfriend said that I should give 10% of my income back to God.  I thought she was crazy. “10% ! I said.  Are you crazy? I only made $800 per month…that’s $80!   That’s a lot of money to me! I don’t even have enough to live on!”  It’s probably the same you would say.  After some convincing, I gave it a shot.  To my surprise, the next month I made $3,000, which is the most I ever made.

The question is, who is your provider? Is it you?  I realized, as a Christian, you give that job over to God. He becomes your provider.  By giving back 10% of your income you show that you trust God to be your provider.  If you’re a Christian and you don’t exercise that principle, you’re missing out on some great blessings from God.  I would not be surprised if you’re struggling financially because of that.  Give it a shot…you’ll be surprised as well!