Many years ago the William Booth, the great man of God who founded the Salvation Army, could not get to a meeting which was to be attended by all his officers. In his absence he sent a telegram to be opened in the meeting. As all his officers gathered around they opened the telegram to find one word "OTHERS".
The way to "others" is through learning what it means to SERVE!
"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph. 2:10 (NIV)
You and I were made to make a contribution, not just to consume.
God made you to make a difference.What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of your life.
Here are three common barriers we may all be faced with when it comes to serving Jesus:
1st Barrier: SELF-CENTEREDNESS
"Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." Phil. 2:4 (MSG)
Whenever you see a need right in front of you, guess what? God is giving you the opportunity to practice serving. The number one enemy of compassion is busyness. We just get too busy! And because I'm so busy, I don't have time to serve. I've got my agenda, my plans, my dreams, my goals, my ambitions. You know what the problem is? We hang this - "do not disturb sign" on the door of our heart. "Don't disturb my heart. I've got my goals. I've got my safe little life going here, so don't disturb me for the needs of other people." Do a study on the STOPS OF JESUS. He was often interupted on his way somewhere. He stopped often and allowed his Father to divinely disrupt his plans - miracles followed shortly after.
2nd Barrier: PERFECTIONISM
Wanting every thing to be perfect. You know, "When it's all just right, when things settle down, then I'll serve."
"If you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done." Eccl. 11:4 (NLT)
Real servants, Christ-like servants, do the best they can with what they have for Jesus Christ today. They don't wait. You see what's happened in many churches today, is we have made an idol out of excellence. We really have. And many people worship excellence, even Christians. And they say "Well, you know if you can't do it first class, don't even try."
At FAITHPOINTE we don't believe that. Here we practice what we call "The Good Enough Principle". And The Good Enough Principle is this: it doesn't have to be perfect for God to bless it.
That's the truth. If God only used perfect people, what would get done in this world? Nothing, zip, zero! We're all a bunch of misfits. We all have weaknesses. We all have faults. We all have failures. We all have handicaps. But guess what? God uses us all. Why? Because God doesn't use perfect people because there aren't any. There aren't enough superstars in this world to get it done. God uses normal people.
3rd Barrier: WRONG MOTIVATIONS
"When you do good deeds, don't try to show off. If you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven." Matt. 6:1 (CEV)
The wrong motivation of showing off. Self-promotion and servanthood don't mix, but it's easy to get them mixed up.
A lot of our service, if we are honest, can be self-serving at times. We need to be honest with ourselves about that.- We serve to get others to like us.- We serve to be admired.- We serve to achieve our own goals.- We serve as sort of a bargaining chip with God. "God, I'll serve and You take care of me here."
All kinds of wrong motivations.
And it's hard to see the wrong motivations in us. I have them, you have them.How do you know if you have a wrong motivation? Gratitude. This very attitude. When you lose a sense of gratefulness, of gratitude in your life, you can know right away there's something wrong with my motivation.
I know this post is challenging for all of us. My prayer is that you will come to that place of LOVING to serve God with whatever He has in store.
Happy Serving!