Here to Serve

A few months ago, the Lord gave me the title of this blog. At the time, it was just a motto, something to live by, something to help me tackle the mundane tasks of motherhood. “I am here to serve.” I found myself saying it over and over, repeating it to myself in the most physically and mentally strenuous moments of being pregnant with a toddler. “I am here to serve.” Something in me began to shift. My spirit began to rise, and there was more grace to be and do what my role required of me. 

I knew the Holy Spirit was giving me something to agree with, a truth to weaken my flesh’s lure to be self-serving instead of laying down my life. I found strength and joy in those moments and continue to believe that we truly are at our best when we are serving. There is a reward, now and later, in serving others by laying down your life as unto the Lord. This must manifest in our homes, in the Church, and always in the culture. 

To our dismay, many members of the body of Christ have become infected with self-serving and selfish ambition. Instead of seeking to serve others, the Church often focuses on personal success, fame, fortune, and pursuing what “serves” ourselves. This opposes the purpose of freedom. When God set His people free from Egyptian slavery, He told Pharaoh through Moses, “Let my people go, that they may serve me!” Exodus 7:16

Instead of using our freedom to serve God, we have become servants of self and lawlessness. We desire greatness over service, and being first rather than making Jesus famous through our love and self-denial. We see this in the first disciples of Jesus. Then and till now, there has been a temptation to exalt ourselves over others, to pursue title and position over Kingdom greatness. 

While debating who was the greatest, Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 20:25-28 AMPC,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men hold them in subjection [tyrannizing over them]. Not so shall it be among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you must be your slave– Just as the Son of Man came not to be waited on but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [the price paid to set them free].”

Imagine how confused they must have been when Jesus said this. They thought He was coming to rule and reign on earth by removing Rome’s occupation and setting up an earthly Kingdom. They imagined they would each have thrones next to Him and positions of great authority. In part, they were correct. God was calling them to reign in the Spirit, to bring Heaven down. The call He was placing before His disciples was the greatest they could have dreamed. Each of them would go on to die for the faith, but to fulfill their calling, they had to learn that the way up is down. See, serving changes your heart. You may start in the flesh, but as you yield to the Spirit in serving, your heart shifts from your needs to the needs of others. The call of the Gospel is a call to self-denial. 

It’s not a small thing to be a servant of God. It’s not a small thing to serve, to lay down your life as unto the Lord. This can look like washing a sink of dishes, or teaching children’s church. Look at where God has planted you, and there you are to serve. Consider where God has placed you and what assignment He has given you. We think of the Apostles and their assignment to build the Church. According to Paul, the five-fold is to equip the body of Christ for the work of the ministry. That word “ministry” means service. You and I are called to serve, and the five-fold offices teach us how to serve in accordance with God’s heart.

When studying servanthood, I began to think of servants bowing low. A servant isn’t asking to be served. They aren’t seeking their own will in a matter. A good and faithful servant only says, “Let me be of service! What do you ask of me, Lord?” To be clear, we aren’t slaves; we are bondservants. God has released us from the debt we owed Him through faith in Jesus, and now we are willingly surrendering our lives out of love for Him. 

Paul called himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ. In the first century, a bondservant was an indentured servant who served until their debt was paid. Once their debt was paid, they could willingly stay with their master out of devotion, making them a love-slave for life!

Exodus 21:1-6 NKJV

“Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them: If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”

Have you let Him mark you as His love-slave, His bondservant? I know, I know, Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, but friends,” but you can’t be His friend till you have the heart of a servant. He is Master and Lord, before He is Friend. Someone in my life shared this truth with me years ago, but in my pride, I didn’t understand I needed to learn servanthood. I had no idea how to serve the Kingdom way, especially in places where there was no personal glory. 

See, when you only serve yourself, God will create spaces for you to learn self-sacrifice. He will draw you away from those who praise you and set you amongst the lowly and even rude. He will strip you of the dopamine high that is man-pleasing and show you that, apart from Him, you’re not that great. Our lack of identity in Christ as His bondservants has made us inflate our own greatness through the pursuit of ministry titles and personal success. What a tragedy that we think greatness is anything but self-denial and service to others

We should never seek applause or even honor as His bondservants. Jesus taught His disciples not to expect or look for thanks for their service, that it was simply their duty! We see this in Luke chapter 17. Jesus says, 

“And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ”

This is the mindset of true humility. No thanks is needed; no thanks is required. This hits me, because my whole life I struggled with pleasing people, but really it was about pleasing myself. When we serve unto man, we lose our reward, but when we serve as unto the Lord, He honors us. We don’t need to seek our own honor; God will take care of that. Honor from man is so fleeting anyhow! You do something for someone, and they can be ungrateful. Yet, when you do it for Jesus, because you love them and Him, you don’t need thanks anyway. Serving becomes its own reward. 

I want to encourage you that serving and self-denial are doors to joy and true greatness. Serving provides purpose and meaning, which is the opposite of what the culture teaches. Instead of looking for a place to be honored, why don’t we look for someone to serve? Most of the time, we don’t have to look too far. We can look at our brothers and sisters in Christ, our spouses, our coworkers, our neighbors, and our leaders to find plenty of places to serve as unto the Lord. 

This is what God requires of you and enables you to do by His Spirit: 

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” Deuteronomy 10:12 NKJV 

“Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:24 NKJV 

Consider what great things He has done for you and become His bondservant for life! In this place of service, you will find joy in the duty that has become mundane. You will find purpose in the washing of feet and the handling of the dirt in people’s lives and mouths. You will find Jesus and that He is worthy of every act of service done in love for Him! Say it with me, “I am here to serve!”

Much love,

His Yielded Vessel