"A servant of God."

I read this in my Bible today. Paul says in Romans 1:1, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ..." Throughout the Bible, Paul's epistles especially, you see this theme of being a servant and the value that God puts on it, as well as the honor God grants to servants who are faithful. I am a servant of God as well! If you're saved, you should be too. If you are a servant of God, it will make you a servant of others as well. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:19, "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more."

I will not take the time to go through all the references about servanthood and slavery in the Bible. But you all know people that you have come across or worked with that you could say, "they're a servant!" First of all, this is not popular. Servanthood is frowned upon by society today. If you are a servant, you are almost the opposite of success in the worlds eyes. They look down on folks who live for others. But, as a child of God, doesn't this lifestyle mirror the life of Christ? He said, "I am not come to be ministered unto, but to minister."

It's easy to talk about it, and it's easy to show others how to be a servant. Much harder, though, is showing yourself how to be a servant. When you really show your servanthood, you will do something that you really don't want to do. Don't you hate it when there is almost an uproar in your flesh over something it does not want to do? A lot of people go out of their way to do a job that needs to be done, but it seems like it is always something that they enjoy doing. It takes a lot of character to do something you hate.

Character in servanthood is not shown on the plateau's and pulpits of verbal professions. It is shown behind the sink of personal character, or at the tub of self control in an unwanted job, or at the feet of Christ, simply washing feet. Oh, it will not appear as Christ! It will appear as one of the staff at the academy where I work needing me to take their shift. It will appear as vacuuming a car because someone else was careless and made a mess. It will appear as a run to the grocery store to help someone with a vehicle problem that broke down in a parking lot, thus ruining my whole afternoon. By the way, those three things happened to me in the same day!

Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Aha! It will not always appear as if you are doing it for Jesus, but he says that you are! We better remember that when we are inconvenienced and want to throw our mental tantrums about how bad we have it! The Lord is watching you. How do you react in those situations?

David Gibbs said this: "Servanthood is not the stepping stone to greatness; servanthood is greatness!

It is when you become a servant that you realize what happiness is all about: doing for others. When you get busy making yourself available to serve, you will forget about your petty problems and aggravations. You won't have time. I think of people in the Bible that were a servant when it was inconvenient. Remember the Shunemite woman found in 2 Kings 4? That is the only place in the Bible a woman is called great! Why? Because she sacrificed of herself for the man of God.

Well, I just got done doing the dishes before I sat to write this post. I didn't want to. I had washed dishes twice today already, and I happen to wash about 80 percent of the time. I was sick of it tonight. I tried to get one of my brothers to do it to no avail. =D That's ok. Now that it's done, I'm glad I did it. It builds character. =D Besides, no one wanted to do it, and it had to get done. I'm glad that my two busy brothers were not inconvenienced by washing dishes tonight. In fact, they're in bed right now trying to rest for the day tomorrow. It's a packed schedule this weekend, so they'll need it. Just maybe a little extra service wasn't so bad after all.

Phillipians 2:5-8
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Ask the Lord to help you be a better servant. Just a little from my devotions this morning...hope it helped you.