What keeps me from serving others?
When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn’t just sit down and eat. He must first prepare his master’s meal and serve him his supper before eating his own. And the servant is not even thanked, because he is merely doing what he is supposed to do. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, “We are not worthy of praise. We are servants who have simply done our duty.” Luke 17:7-10
What keeps me from a Luke 17 type of servant’s heart?
Serving without expecting appreciation with submission of all desire to be praised.
Pride. Pride thrives on recognition.
Laziness and passivity. Laziness has the attitude “I don’t want to do it” while passivity believes “someone else will do it”. Put the two together and I’ve given myself the way out.
Love. I don’t love others—yet—as Jesus loves them! My heart needs to break over the needs of others, the work to be done, the fields to be harvested. Simultaneously, it must burst with overwhelming love, affection, compassion and desire for the welfare of others—physically, relationally and spiritually.
Jesus became a servant. Am I willing to see myself as a servant to Jesus and to others?
A servant has a heart of humble desperation. Do I?
