The Heart of a Servant—1 - Thursday March 11, 2010
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. John 13:3-4
A prerequisite to effective service is that we first have a proper view of ourselves. This is one lesson we can distill from Jesus as He washed the feet of His disciples.
One translation says “Jesus, being conscious that…He had come forth from God and was going back to God” (Bible in Basic English—BBE). Jesus served His disciples out of a clear understanding of who He was, where He had come from, and where He was going. This understanding is also critical for us to serve people as we should.
There can be many motivations for serving. Obviously it does not please God, nor does it result in future gain, when we serve just to be seen by men (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16). Other motivations are duty and obligation or from a conscious or unconscious attempt to earn God’s favor.
To serve selflessly, we must first have an accurate grasp of who we are before God and in Christ and have an assurance of His calling on our lives. What truths about our identity in Christ can free us to truly serve selflessly?
1. We are qualified to serve because He has gifted us (1 Peter 4:10, 1 Corinthians 12).
2. As we understand our unworthiness, we can escape the trap of thinking too highly of ourselves and can think so as to have sound judgment (Romans 12:1-3).
3. We are His slaves, and our rights really belong to Him anyway (Luke 17:7-10, Philippians 2:3-8).
This consciousness is Step One in selflessly serving.
Submitted by:
Daniel P. Goering
Die Brücke (The Bridge)
Cologne, Germany
One-Year Reading Plan:
Numbers 15:17-16:40
Mark 15:1-47
Psalms 54:1-7
Proverbs 11:5-6
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.