SERVING OTHERS
Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all – Mark 10:44
Do you want to make a difference in the kingdom of God? Do you desire to be used in a mighty way to the glory of Jesus Christ? Do you have high ambitions for yourself in Christ’s body?
Then don’t settle for holding a significant position or for being especially prominent. Raise your sights even higher — make it your goal to be the chief person in the kingdom of God…and start serving everyone around you.
Jesus told his ambitious, contentious disciples on several occasions the only way to be great in His kingdom. The person that wishes to be great must take on the lowest, self-emptying, others-oriented, servant-spirited position in the church. He or she must become the servant of all.
Is there anyone in the church that you would disdain to serve? Do you still see yourself above certain individuals because of their background, or social status, or financial situation, or educational level, or personal hygiene? Then you are not yet chief in the kingdom of God. You have not yet risen high enough in the service of the Lord. Because you are not yet the servant of all.
Look today for opportunities for promotion in the church of Jesus Christ. Search out the lowliest and become lower still by serving them. There is no person too small, or smelly, or ugly, or sick, or handicapped for you to serve in Christ’s kingdom, if you are spiritually ambitious enough.(From “A Good Thing”)
LAUGHING AT THE IMPOSSIBLE
After the guests left, Sarah was still thinking about what she had heard, and the words of the Lord came home to her heart in peculiar power—especially the question God had asked, Is anything too difficult for the Lord?
As Sarah thought about it, she had to face that question. She began to think of it—the Creator; the one who called out of nothing the vast world in which we live and beyond that the worlds that circle us in the limitless reaches of space; the one who sustains from day to day all the mighty, complex forces of earth, brings the sun up on time, guides the planets in their whirling courses, predicts human events and centuries later brings them to pass exactly as He promised. As Sarah began to think of the one who had said these words, she felt the full force of that question: Is anything too difficult for the Lord?
And she looked beyond the contrary facts of her own life and said, Of course not. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. If He has promised, then it shall he done.
Through faith she received power to conceive when she was past the age because she counted Him faithful who had promised.
What a beautiful lesson this is on the nature of faith. Faith looks beyond all the contrary circumstances to rest upon the character of the one who promised. Do not be misled by the popular delusion that faith stands by itself, that it is simply believing—anything! Faith must have a promise to rest upon. Anything else is presumption, gullibility, and folly. But when God has given a word, it is the Word of God, and it can be trusted, despite circumstance, feelings, or anything else. For is anything too difficult for the Lord?
Does it seem hard to you to be what God wants you to be? Is it hard to keep your evil nature in the place of death? It is not too hard for the Lord! Does it seem hard to you to be made sweet and gracious and forgiving and loving when down inside you know how nasty and devious and unpleasant and perverse you can be? It is hard for you, but it is not too hard for the Lord! Does it seem hard that the friend for whom you are praying should ever be converted, or the one that is now rebelling against grace can ever be changed? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Does some task that God is now asking of you seem impossible to perform? It may be hard for you, but it is not too hard for the Lord.
Lord, help me to believe in the midst of my own seeming impossible situations that nothing is impossible with You.
IN THE DARK?
DIVINE HEALING
“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.”
God’s purpose for your life is sometimes fulfilled through your suffering.
Imagine if the lame man had never been lame. Imagine if he had never been at the pool of Bethesda, suffered through inability to reach the water, and experienced loneliness. The lame man’s lameness led him to Christ.
Often we think of God’s healing as the taking away of a disease or difficulty, but God’s trials always have purposes.— Faith in God accepts the trial and trusts God’s perfect will to be done.
I’m sure there were times the lame man questioned if he would ever be healed. I’m sure he questioned the worth of his existence as he lay by a pool unable to help himself and without someone to help him. Yet as he endured through his suffering, Jesus came and healed him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
Jesus’ plan was to heal this man and show to all around that healing doesn’t come simply from a pool, but from the very Son of God. God’s purpose was fulfilled through this man’s suffering.
Have you ever stopped to realize that God’s purpose for your life is sometimes fulfilled through your suffering? What we view as painful and unnecessary, God views as glorifying. We can’t understand God’s purpose behind everything that happens in our lives, but we can trust not just for our deliverance, but for His glorification through our trials.
Are you going through a trial? God’s immediate healing would be a wonderful thing, would it not? Don’t focus on your deliverance, but rather think about God’s eternal purpose and plan in your trial. God does have a purpose for your situation, and He does desire to work through you, but you must allow Him to. Most lost people question God during difficulties, but as God’s child, realize that His will is being done, and use your trial to honor and glorify Him wherever you go. (Daily In the Word)
