The Holy One calls to me this morning. I am in need of grace. God's grace is sufficient and mine is woefully inadequate. I wake up confessing a grace-less attitude and the Holy One prepares to give me His.
He begins our conference with a question, "Whose servant are you?" What sounds like a solid rebuke is delivered in a gentle tone,and I hear the loving reminder that I do, indeed, live and work for Someone else.
It is hard when flesh is inconvenienced by demands that come from other people's needs but if I am to represent my Lord's interests in others, I will find myself inconvenienced most all of the time.
Whose Servant Am I?
That simple question drives the point of today's conference deep into my heart. Jesus modelled a servant's heart throughout His public ministry. Jesus met the needs of the world of people wherever He found Himself in the temporal circumstances of life.
Earth life is messy. Human needs do not come at convenient times and even if they were more regimented, I wonder if there is ever a "convenient" time for our flesh to serve others?
Jesus had a relatively short public ministry. Once He was revealed as the long awaited Messiah, His life became more and more dangerous. The closer He got to the Cross and His ultimate life purpose, the more inconvenient it must have been to meet the physical needs of the people whose souls He came to save.
There is a very deep message to all of us in that aspect of Jesus's life. How often do I press to do the more important and "greater" things and lose sight of the lesser things and opportunities that my Lord brings to serve His interests in other people who cross my path?
"Do not despise the day of the small things" in a way speaks to me about the "big" things and the attitude I must maintain as I navigate His highway of Holiness on earth.
On His way to the cross, Jesus fed 5000 people just one meal. On His way to the cross, He gave a man his sight who had been blind all of his life. On His way to the cross, He healed a woman who had an issue of blood for years when no one else had been able to help.
On his way to the cross, Jesus poured out God's love in a myriad of "lesser" ways in meeting humanity's temporal needs even as His more important mission was to meet man's eternal one.
The question by Holiness to me today, pushes me past the circumstances I find need my inconvenient attention. Selfishly speaking, if I am merely serving other people, my motivation will wane quickly since I have flesh needs of my own. But if I am here to serve the One who saved my soul, I will realize I am His servant and commissioned to serve His purpose in other people's lives.
Meeting the temporal needs in a world of people who touch my life as a servant of the Lord is not the same thing as serving their flesh by and through mine. It is a small but important distinction and yet one that provides for the lack of grace in me and then leads to the more important truth: I simply do not know what other people really need nor do I have a clue about how to meet that need.
I have been a "people-pleaser" and served in that capacity most all of my life. It is easy to wake up in bondage to those I tried so hard to please. That "rabbit hole" unfortunately ends with self and actually represents forms of human control.
Being a servant of Christ means I am a bond slave to Him and must be about the business of serving Him and His interests in other people. In and of myself I can look at another person's life not really knowing what they need at that moment where our lives intersect. With the help of the Holy Spirit and with eyes and ears trained on Him, I can begin to fulfill my role as a servant of Jesus the Christ.
Acts of love are priceless yet may cost us little more than a few minutes in our otherwise busy day or a few cents out of our otherwise tight budget. But the small things pave the way for the bigger things as we are found to be trusted servants of the Most High.
Who among the saved would not want to be a conduit for miracles, doing what the Lord did on His way to the cross? And who has the Lord Jesus commissioned to do such things? His servants!
It is amazing how an adjustment in perspective changes everything. Where serving man or myself leads to grace-less internals, realizing that I am in service to my King mysteriously brings back the joy of the mission.
As a mom, I think back on Mary, the mother of our Lord, and her response to the great commission she had been given:
Luke 1:38, "I am the Lord's Servant. May it be done to me as you have said". Despite the human questions and even social ramifications, Mary's answer is the one I (and all believers) need to have on my lips. "I am the Lord's servant".
The question of Holiness, "Whose servant are you?", was not a rebuke but a reminder, and with that reminder comes the grace.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
He begins our conference with a question, "Whose servant are you?" What sounds like a solid rebuke is delivered in a gentle tone,and I hear the loving reminder that I do, indeed, live and work for Someone else.
It is hard when flesh is inconvenienced by demands that come from other people's needs but if I am to represent my Lord's interests in others, I will find myself inconvenienced most all of the time.
Whose Servant Am I?
That simple question drives the point of today's conference deep into my heart. Jesus modelled a servant's heart throughout His public ministry. Jesus met the needs of the world of people wherever He found Himself in the temporal circumstances of life.
Earth life is messy. Human needs do not come at convenient times and even if they were more regimented, I wonder if there is ever a "convenient" time for our flesh to serve others?
Jesus had a relatively short public ministry. Once He was revealed as the long awaited Messiah, His life became more and more dangerous. The closer He got to the Cross and His ultimate life purpose, the more inconvenient it must have been to meet the physical needs of the people whose souls He came to save.
There is a very deep message to all of us in that aspect of Jesus's life. How often do I press to do the more important and "greater" things and lose sight of the lesser things and opportunities that my Lord brings to serve His interests in other people who cross my path?
"Do not despise the day of the small things" in a way speaks to me about the "big" things and the attitude I must maintain as I navigate His highway of Holiness on earth.
On His way to the cross, Jesus fed 5000 people just one meal. On His way to the cross, He gave a man his sight who had been blind all of his life. On His way to the cross, He healed a woman who had an issue of blood for years when no one else had been able to help.
On his way to the cross, Jesus poured out God's love in a myriad of "lesser" ways in meeting humanity's temporal needs even as His more important mission was to meet man's eternal one.
The question by Holiness to me today, pushes me past the circumstances I find need my inconvenient attention. Selfishly speaking, if I am merely serving other people, my motivation will wane quickly since I have flesh needs of my own. But if I am here to serve the One who saved my soul, I will realize I am His servant and commissioned to serve His purpose in other people's lives.
Meeting the temporal needs in a world of people who touch my life as a servant of the Lord is not the same thing as serving their flesh by and through mine. It is a small but important distinction and yet one that provides for the lack of grace in me and then leads to the more important truth: I simply do not know what other people really need nor do I have a clue about how to meet that need.
I have been a "people-pleaser" and served in that capacity most all of my life. It is easy to wake up in bondage to those I tried so hard to please. That "rabbit hole" unfortunately ends with self and actually represents forms of human control.
Being a servant of Christ means I am a bond slave to Him and must be about the business of serving Him and His interests in other people. In and of myself I can look at another person's life not really knowing what they need at that moment where our lives intersect. With the help of the Holy Spirit and with eyes and ears trained on Him, I can begin to fulfill my role as a servant of Jesus the Christ.
Acts of love are priceless yet may cost us little more than a few minutes in our otherwise busy day or a few cents out of our otherwise tight budget. But the small things pave the way for the bigger things as we are found to be trusted servants of the Most High.
Who among the saved would not want to be a conduit for miracles, doing what the Lord did on His way to the cross? And who has the Lord Jesus commissioned to do such things? His servants!
It is amazing how an adjustment in perspective changes everything. Where serving man or myself leads to grace-less internals, realizing that I am in service to my King mysteriously brings back the joy of the mission.
As a mom, I think back on Mary, the mother of our Lord, and her response to the great commission she had been given:
Luke 1:38, "I am the Lord's Servant. May it be done to me as you have said". Despite the human questions and even social ramifications, Mary's answer is the one I (and all believers) need to have on my lips. "I am the Lord's servant".
The question of Holiness, "Whose servant are you?", was not a rebuke but a reminder, and with that reminder comes the grace.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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