The apostle John taught that our loving service to others shows that we are truly saved. He said, "Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life." (1 John 3:14 CEV)
God Made You to Make a Difference
God calls you to a service far beyond anything you could ever imagine. You were put on earth to make a contribution.
You weren't created just to consume resources - to eat, breath, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life.
The Bible says, "God . . . has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10 TEV) These "good deeds" are your service to the world. Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God.
When most people think of this "special work," they think of pastors, priests, and professional clergy, but God says every member of his family is to minister. In the Bible, the words servant and minister are synonyms, as are service and ministry. If you are a Christian, you are a minister, and when you're serving, you're ministering.
Have you ever wondered why God doesn't just immediately take us to heaven the moment we accept his grace? Once you are saved, God intends to use you to fulfill his purposes. God has a ministry for you in his church and a mission for you in the world.
Is there anything holding you back from accepting God's call to serve him?
You Were Saved to Serve God
God redeemed you so you could do his "holy work." You're not saved by service, but you are saved for service.
It cost Jesus his own life to purchase your salvation. The Bible reminds us, "God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God." (1 Corinthians 6:20 CEV)
We don't serve God out of guilt or fear or even duty, but out of joy, and deep gratitude for what he's done for us. We owe him our lives. Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured.
In light of these incredible benefits Paul concluded, "Because of God's great mercy . . . Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service." (Romans 12:1 TEV)
Serving Should Define Your Life
Service is not something to be tacked onto our schedules when we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came "to serve" and "to give" - and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too.
Jesus taught that spiritual maturity is never an end in itself. Maturity is for ministry! It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe. Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation.
Yet serving is the opposite of our natural inclination. Most of the time we're more interested in "serve us" than service. We say, "I'm looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me," not "I'm looking for a place to serve and be a blessing."
But as we mature in Christ, the focus of our lives should increasingly shift to living a life of service. The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, "Who's going to meet my needs?" and starts asking, "Whose needs can I meet?"
Fully Alive When Helping Others
At the end of your life on earth you will stand before God, and he is going to evaluate how well you served others with your life.
Think about the implications of that. One day God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves compared with what we invested in serving others.
At that point, all our excuses for self-centeredness will sound hollow: "I was too busy," or "I had my own goals," or "I was preoccupied with working, having fun, or preparing for retirement." To all excuses God will respond, "Sorry, wrong answer. I created, saved, and called you and commanded you to live a life of service. What part did you not understand?"
The truth is, we are only fully alive when we're helping others. Jesus said, "If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live." (Mark 8:35 LB)
This truth is so important that it is repeated five times in the Gospels. If you are not serving, you are just existing -- because life is meant for ministry. God wants you to learn to love and serve others unselfishly.
Every one of us, then, will have to give an account of ourselves to God.(Romans 14:12 GNB)
Preventing burnout - Recharging Emotionally
When your emotional tank is empty, you're unable to love others unselfishly. You just give up. You may have a sense of being overwhelmed and feeling inadequate. You may even get angry at the ones you love the most. You may try to avoid people or view them as problems. You have no desire to love.
To love others you have to keep your emotional tank full. When it gets low, it's going to make a difference in your relationships.
The Bible has three suggestions for recharging emotionally:
Solitude--"There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while.”" (Mark 6:31 GNB) You need time alone. Today's verse teaches us Jesus frequently withdrew from crowds when he needed to recharge himself emotionally. In this case there was so much hustle and bustle, Jesus says to the disciples, "Come apart for a while." (KJV) You either come apart or you will come apart.
Recreation--One of my favorite verses is, "Jesus came enjoying life." (Matthew 11:19 Phillips) He was the most intensive, ministry-oriented person who ever lived, but he enjoyed life. When you're giving to others, it costs and exhausts. You need play time. For you it may be hobbies, a sport, a craft, or games. Experiment and find out what it is that recharges you emotionally, then make time for it.
Laughter - "Being cheerful keeps you healthy." (Proverbs 17:22 TEV) There are studies that prove that when you laugh it increases the number of T-cells - and that raises your immunity level. It produces endorphins in your brain. Laughter is a load lightener, an emotional recharger and a love rebuilder.
When your emotional tank is empty, you're unable to love others unselfishly. You just give up. You may have a sense of being overwhelmed and feeling inadequate. You may even get angry at the ones you love the most. You may try to avoid people or view them as problems. You have no desire to love.
To love others you have to keep your emotional tank full. When it gets low, it's going to make a difference in your relationships.
The Bible has three suggestions for recharging emotionally:
Solitude--"There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while.”" (Mark 6:31 GNB) You need time alone. Today's verse teaches us Jesus frequently withdrew from crowds when he needed to recharge himself emotionally. In this case there was so much hustle and bustle, Jesus says to the disciples, "Come apart for a while." (KJV) You either come apart or you will come apart.
Recreation--One of my favorite verses is, "Jesus came enjoying life." (Matthew 11:19 Phillips) He was the most intensive, ministry-oriented person who ever lived, but he enjoyed life. When you're giving to others, it costs and exhausts. You need play time. For you it may be hobbies, a sport, a craft, or games. Experiment and find out what it is that recharges you emotionally, then make time for it.
Laughter - "Being cheerful keeps you healthy." (Proverbs 17:22 TEV) There are studies that prove that when you laugh it increases the number of T-cells - and that raises your immunity level. It produces endorphins in your brain. Laughter is a load lightener, an emotional recharger and a love rebuilder.
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