These past few days I have been prayerfully seeking what aspect of Jesus I would like to focus on, in preparation for Easter. I wanted to focus on an aspect of Jesus that I needed more in my own life, and I desperately wanted to be challenged like never before. That’s when the Lord used My Utmost for His Highest in my life once more. The title of today’s devotion is The Determination to Serve, and I was struck hard by the word serve. When is the last time I sought to serve?
Am I willing to serve selflessly? Do I serve without complaint? Is my first choice to serve? Am I willing to serve and give, even to the point of death, just as Christ? Honestly? No.
I am a product of the ME generation. Despite having wonderful examples of service in my life, I rarely seek to serve. My life revolves around me most of the time. I am quick to focus on my blessings, but I so often fail to seek to be a blessing to others. I focus on my time, my plans, and my home, but I fail to focus on areas where I should serve. I no longer want to be associated with my generation. Life all about me is empty, without purpose, and lonely. This is not the life I am called to. This is not the life any believer is called to.
Because our culture is so fixated on ourselves, a heart of service towards others is rare. However, if I am to be more like Jesus, then my heart must seek to put others first, not for their approval, but for His. Oswald Chambers states in My Utmost for His Highest, “When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.”
Over these next few weeks I will begin the process of shifting my focus. It will not be an easy task to change my thinking, but in order for me to be who God has called me to be, I must seek to serve. I want to have the determination to serve. I want my life to be a picture of selfless giving. If am to be told someday, “Well done my good and faithful servant”, then I need to become a servant of the gospel for the lost, a servant for God’s people, a servant for God’s purpose, and a servant seeking His approval above all else.
I don’t know yet how I am going to accomplish this task of seeking to serve, but I know it starts with a heart, broken of pride, open to a challenge, and filled with love. As I seek to serve, my home will be a sanctuary of worship to my Savior. The TV will be off, social media will be limited, worship music will be on, and everything having to do with our ME culture will be purged from my house. I will spend time in prayer, praying for the lost, praying for the broken, praying for purpose, praying for the determination to serve, even when I don’t want to. I will make time to study the life of Christ, seeking to be more like Him, and thanking Him for His ultimate sacrifice.
“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28
Choosing. 