Are You A Servant or Just Serving?

Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? (Luke 17:8 TNIV)

It has well been said that you can test someone’s servanthood by treating them as a servant.   What you will find is that most “servants” are not grasping the true nature of a servant.  Anyone can serve someone else and even enjoy serving others because that’s their personality.  They are caretakers who love to take care of others.  Mothers wait on their children hand and foot not because they are servants, but because they are mothers. 

Serving is not the true test of servanthood. The real test of being a servant is how you act when you have done what you love to do, but it becomes expected and goes without appreciation, or you are asked to do more even in spite of all that you’ve already done.  And how you act is intricately tied to how you think about your act of service.  If we are ladened with ulterior motives – if I serve, I’ll be accepted; if I serve, I’ll be noticed; if I serve, I’ll be loved; if I serve, I’ll be served back; if I serve, …. you fill in the blank, then our service is not born out of a servant’s heart, but out of self-serving mindset.  The motive for service is where the rubber meets the road and separates the silver from the dross.  If our motive is simply to serve because that’s what Jesus told us to do and that’s what He did and we truly consider ourselves servants, then when people treat us as such, expecting us to wait on them hand and foot, asking for more than we want to give, and give nothing in return, then it will not affect our attitude one iota.

No wonder Jesus prefaced this area of Scripture with the assurance that if we have even a miniscule amount of faith, we can move the mountain of self that stands between us and the mindset of a true servant.

Whenever I am treated like a servant, I need to immediately check my attitude.  If I am offended, then I am walking in my flesh and not my spirit.  I will pray for God to grant me the tiny little bit of faith I need to suck it up and course correct.

Truth or Circumstances?

Blessed is anyone who doesn’t stumble on account of me (Matthew 11:6).

When people think of Jesus, many things come to mind, even for the unbeliever.  Prophet, Rabbi, Savior, Son of God.  And when we considered the things Jesus did, we have a line up that would be a headliner at any Las Vegas show.  Giving sight to the blind, healing a man who had been lame for 40 years and a women for 12, turning water into wine, feeding over 15,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, and the mac daddy of them all – raising someone from the dead – oh, wait a minute, how about being raised Himself from the dead and returning to see over 500 people to prove it.  Yes, He would have definitely been in the top 3 contenders for Israel’s Got Talent. 

But not many would have ever listed stumbling as one of the things Jesus was known for and yet a careful reading of Scripture shows many who did stumble on account of Him – the Pharisees, the rich young ruler, the lawyers, John the Baptist, Judas, James, the brother of Jesus, and of course Peter, to name just a few.  But that list is not complete either because we can add our own names to it without really much hesitation.  We’ve all had the stumbling thoughts at one time or another – “God, where are You?  Why me?  Don’t You care? How long? Are you even there at all (our variation of John the Baptist’s question, ‘Are you the One?’)?”

We shouldn’t feel too terrible when we consider the company in which we find ourselves as stumblers.  In fact, Jesus Himself said:

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!  (Matthew 18:7 NIV)

In fact, as far back as Isaiah, God told the nation of Israel that the Messiah would be a stumbling block:

He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare (Isaiah 8:14 NIV).

God is not taken back when we stumble, He even says:

The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand (Psalm 37:23-24 NIV).

But what we do next is very important.  The above verse tells us that when we are delighting in the Lord, even though we stumble, we will not fall because God will uphold us.  That’s why Jesus told John the Baptist – don’t go there. 

The Amplified Bible gives a better understanding of what Jesus is actually saying to us in this verse:

And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.

Jesus does not chide John for stumbling – He’s telling him that there is no blessing in it and it blocks us from seeing the truth.

The truth is that God is there, chose you specifically for the trial, does care, knows the exact length it will last, and is more real than the circumstances that cause us to lose hope.  But how do we keep these truths in our heart when we come to the place of stumbling.  The stumbling Apostle Peter has some great insights for us on that topic:

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble (2 Peter 1:10 NIV).

Do what things?  Go back five verses:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-8 NIV).

When we focus on growing in goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love, we will not stumble when God decides to do something we never expected.

If I focus on my circumstances, I’ll stumble.  If I focus on the truth, I’ll stand.  It’s up to me, which is why I am not a victim to anything or anyone, but more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus.

Our Decisions Determine Our Destiny

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7 NKJV). 

Some call it Karma, some call it fate, some the law of reciprocity, but whatever you call it, “it” is an inescapable spiritual principle as binding as the physical principle of gravity.  In the same way if you step off a cliff, you will plummet to the bottom – whether you are white, black, democrat, republican, believer, or non-believer – the way you treat others and how you live your life will produce a harvest that you will not be able to escape. 

This unwavering reality makes our choices in life much more weighty.  And it explains a great deal, if we are willing to take an honest assessment of the results we are currently experiencing from the seeds we have planted so far.  For example, if we are enjoying abundance in our personal finances, then it indicates that we have sowed good financial investments.  If not, well, you do the math.  If we are experiencing rich relationships with friends and family, then we have surely sown tender seeds of care, concern and love into the lives of those around us.  If not, then we are receiving the same cold, callous apathy we’ve shown. 

The principle of sowing and reaping is as old as human history.  That’s why it becomes so curious how so many miss the obvious connection.  The reason why they do is because they fail to take into consideration the factor of time.  Seeds germinate over time.  So, while you may not immediately feel the backlash of that flash of anger, you will definitely reap the consequences at some point down the road.  And even though that quick bet at the race track didn’t cost you farm, the farm is not far from danger if you continue to sow those seeds of greed.  And what you think is a harmless peek at magazine or computer screen for one lustful moment, over time, becomes a hideous addiction that infects the very soul with a poison so deadly it demolishes the sanctity of what God intended to be the most holy place on earth – the physical union of husband and wife.

And if you can shake your head and say in your heart, “That would never happen to me,” then, the Apostle Paul says, you are deceived.  For God has put this principle in place and nothing can defy the final destination of our choices – not even our prideful arrogance that thinks we can somehow escape the providential hand of God’s ordinance.

This sobering truth should cause us to pause before every decision and consider not just the momentary pleasure or gratification of our choices, but the long-term outcome as well.  When we take that moment to look further ahead, we will be able to clearly see the potential danger of the decision or the fruitful harvest of the righteous choice.

Today I will pause before opening my mouth to speak, clicking a button to confirm, or choosing a path to which I have not thoroughly contemplated the ultimate destination.  Over time, this will prove to be a profitable discipline for avoiding a deceptive path and sowing a secure future.

The Blame Game

For each one shall bear his own load.  (Galatians 6:5 NKJV)

This verse brings to mind another more vivid picture painted by Scripture in the book of Revelation:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books (Rev 10:12 NKJV).

The implication of both verses is that at the end of the day – literally – there will be no more room for blame shifting.  What started in the Garden of Eden immediately after the fall will finally end. When questioned by God as to their obvious condition, Adam was quick to blame Eve, who just as quickly threw the hot potato to the serpent.  And from then on, mankind has joined in the “blame game” in order to maintain a façade of “righteousness” that is anything but holy.  Sin had officially entered the world and one of the more glaring results of sin was its insidious need to blame someone else for the behavior that it creates. 

You’ve probably heard the old adage “to err is human and to forgive is divine.”  In that same vein, we could also say, “to blame is human, to accept responsibility is divine.”  Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to admit that we have made a mistake when we all know that we are not perfect? Yet when our nakedness of being human is about to be exposed, we are quick to grab the first convenient cover to hide it, even if it is a little uncomfortable, just like the naked couple in the Garden covering themselves with itchy fig leaves. 

It is not difficult to understand the reason for this natural behavior when we look at what really happened to Adam and Eve.  This was a couple that walked in uninterrupted fellowship with God in a way none of us will truly comprehend until Heaven.  And while they were in this holy unison with the Creator, they completely lacked “self awareness.”  They were others-centered and God focused.  That’s why they never questioned the validity of whatever God told them was good.  They never questioned it because they never looked to themselves for answers. 

Unfortunately for them – and the rest of us – the devil was able to take full advantage of this naivety and deceive the woman into eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The ironic footnote to their decision is that they already had knowledge of everything good because they knew God.  The only thing they got in this deal was the knowledge of what was evil.  And it was that awareness that caused Adam and Eve to consider their nakedness as something of which to be ashamed. Stripped of their innocence, they were destined to live a life of knowing all about evil, but having no power to overcome it.   

Blame is the human response to our awareness that we have sinned and fallen from innocence.  We are not perfect and when exposed, we feel the need to hide.  But in the same way that God offered Adam and Eve a righteous substitute for their sin, which required the shedding of blood, so He offers us a righteous substitute for our sin – Jesus Christ, who also shed His blood. 

And now to connect the dots back to our verse, Paul is telling the Galatians that they should accept responsibility for their own wrong doing because we have a Savior who died so that they could.  The way of the cross requires us to take responsibility for our own actions because one day we will again stand naked before our God and there will be no one else to blame for the decisions we made to call good what He clearly called evil.

When I find myself in a situation where I am inclined to “blame” someone else, I need to remember that this is a natural result of sin.  I will choose, instead, to walk in the power of my supernatural life and accept the responsibility for whatever decision put me in that situation in the first place.  And if I can find no responsibility on my part for the circumstances, then I will follow the lead of my sinless Savior who never opened His mouth to defend Himself, even though He truly was blameless.