The topic of the week is servant hood. What does it mean to be a servant?
For me being a servant, while not always easy, has always been a way of life. My parents trained me at an early age to help others whether it was getting a drink so they didn’t have to get up, or helping an elderly lady carry her stuff. They included it into being responsible… you have to work, pay your tithes, pay your bills, and help those around you. It wasn’t til I was older that I saw that people weren’t all like that.
Now that I’m older, I struggle more with it. I allow pride to enter the scene, asking why me? Why not him or her? On the other extreme, I do some things and won’t let anyone else cause they couldn’t possibly do it as good. Sometimes I do get it right.
What qualities do servants have? Love, humility, they must be a person of action, attentiveness. This list is by no way exhaustive.
Love: without it who would care “This is my command: love one another the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for another.” John 15:12&13
Humility: if you only though of yourself, or thought yourself too good or more highly etc. Then you would expect to be served “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” Philippians 2:3&4
Person of action: lets face it, if you got everything else right, I mean everything, and you didn’t actually do anything, it was all a waste. Its like seeing your favorite food right beside you and you are literally starving to death. If you don’t eat it, it does you no good. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” James 1:22-25
Attentiveness: you have to see the opportunity/need to serve. “Give your complete attention to these matters…” 1 Timothy 4:15a
