Thoughts on Serving

Serving others is an essential part of being a Christian, and a servant's heart is a must-have quality for those who are striving to be more like Jesus. However, serving others isn't always easy. Wait, let's rephrase that. Serving others is almost always not that easy! 

Why? Well, for one, it requires giving of ourselves, and often it also means doing something that we'd honestly rather not be doing if we had the choice. I usually tend to think that I am pretty good at serving others- until I start to evaluate my true feelings. Yes, there's certain things that I don't mind doing as much to help others out. We all have things like that!  

But then I started to ask myself some questions: Would I honestly pick babysitting my younger siblings -again- over reading my new library book? Would I honestly rather choose to clean up trash at the park on a hot day instead of sitting at home scrolling through blog posts? Most of the time, the answer would be no. Of my own accord, I truly don't have the desire to do those things for others instead of things for myself.

The Bible has a lot to say about serving. One of the first verses that came to mind was Mark 10:45- 

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."   Wow.... that will really get you thinking! Jesus, who was the perfect Son of God, came to earth to serve and to give His life for others- literally. 

If Jesus did that for us, shouldn't we be willing to do that for Him? For others? Remember, when we do something for someone else as unto the Lord, it's as if we're actually doing it for Him.

The world's views on serving are- as they are in a lot of other things- totally backwards to Jesus' instructions. Jesus said in Mark 9:35 ...“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”  The world says that whoever wants to be great should go after it and get it- no matter what the cost to others. The Bible says that whoever is the servant of all will be the greatest of all. Our point shouldn't be to serve to get something back or be recognized for it- it should be to simply serve where God calls us to be based on our own unique gifts and talents, like the verse below says.

I'm making it a goal this month ask God to give me a willing and selfless servant's heart, and to look for ways to serve others, no matter if they're big or small, I think it goes along well with the verse about doing everything for the glory of God. (Col. 3:23). As I explore more about serving and what the Bible says about it, I'd love to hear what you think! I'm thinking that a follow-up post on serving will appear sometime in the near future, so please feel free to share your thoughts on the subject!