“Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the
Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a
ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28 TLB)
We are commanded to serve God. Jesus was unmistakable: “Your
attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28
TLB).
For Christians, service is not something to be tacked onto
our schedules if 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! We grow up in order to give out. It is not
enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice
what we claim to believe. Impression without expression causes depression.
Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation.
The old comparison between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead
Sea is still true. Galilee is a lake full of life because it takes in water but
also gives it out. In contrast, nothing lives in the Dead Sea because, with no outflow,
the lake has stagnated.
The last thing many believers need is to go to another
Bible study. They already know far more than they are putting into practice.
What they need is serving experiences in which they can exercise their
spiritual muscles.
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.” We expect others to serve us, not vice versa.
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?”
Source: Rick Warren
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