Most people spend their life wondering how to connect with God in worship when they don’t feel fully connected through songs. Sometimes thoughts such as “something is wrong with me” or “worship just isn’t me” rummages through our minds, but the real issue is that God has gifted us in another way to connect to Him. The amazing thing about the body of Christ is we were created this way by design on purpose. Some people connect though serving others. We want to take some time to dive into how we believe that God has decided this is supposed to work.
Serving others is something that Jesus illustrated quite well to His disciples and set up a model for us to follow. John 13:1 explains the big idea behind serving when it says:
“…Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love”
After saying this Jesus began to wash his disciple’s feet, a task that was usually done by a servant. As His last lesson to the disciples He showed them what it truly meant to serve. We are called to have a sense of selfless service which requires humility. Jesus wasn’t washing their feet because he was required to but because he wanted to. The Creator of the Universe humbled himself to be as low as a servant to present the best model for serving others.
Selfless service is something that is hard for most of us to do, because we still believe that the world revolves around us. Our days are about what we can do for ourselves, about what we can do to get ahead at work, about what other people can do for us in our life, and about the stuff that shows off what we are like to everyone else. Until we grasp the concept of humility we can never truly serve others in the spirit that Christ demonstrated. The first step to being humble comes out of surrender and bowing down to Christ before all other things.
We tend to be afraid to serve because if we do we may feel no one will exalt us for the work we did. We never did anything to get where we are, and we tend to become ungrateful because of our self-centeredness. It becomes scary when we ask God to show us some way to serve and what He asks may put us in the background. The only way we can truly serve in a way that is pleasing to God is to bow down to His will first and trust that He will take care of us.
There is a major difference between serving and doing acts of service. Many times the things we do have good intentions, but not the right heart intent. We begin to serve people and expect them to recognize we did something. Jesus is the only reason we are here and his opinion matters above all others. Self serving people end up living a life full of treasure on this earth but miss the point John 13 is talking about. Christ is more pleased with us when we serve with the right motives to please Him rather than to please others. We must become content with our recognition in Christ.
Humility is a hard thing to practice because it goes against the grain of what the world tells us. We are not of this world but created for a specific purpose by God. We have to be in the world but not of the world. We should be the people going against the grain when the rest of the world says fight for yourselves. We should be fighting for others. When the world tells us to learn things to get ahead of others in ways that cut others down then we should be uplifting others first. Humility and contentment come hand in hand, and if we can begin to practice those things we will be able to serve out of selflessness, not selfishness.
This week we want to encourage you to start to bow down to our Creator in things that you know are keeping you from living a full life of worship though service. Even if this is not your pathway as the body of Christ we should be living this out in our lives in reverence for our God. Try actually bowing on your knees when you are praying or worshiping. It may feel awkward at first but as you get used to it you will find it may help you connect better. Pray for a spirit of humility and contentment thoughout this week. These are qualities that Christ believes are required for us to have as Christians to be set apart but not self apart. Take the step in living a life of selflessness not selfishness.
Dive Deep,
KC
“We bow down and we worship the Lord” is a familiar line in a praise song. Many many of us find ourselves standing on the inside even though we are sitting. Outward appearances, should be a reflection of our inward thoughts, but seldom are in our lives. If we do things as a ritual without first changing our heart attitude, we may fool others but we never fool God. We also need to be mindful not to fool ourselves. Remember when you look in a mirror that we only see our outer reflection, but what we should try and see is our image as God sees our heart. In our society, the washing of feet as an act of service and humility would be awkward to physically implement, but never difficult to perform as an inward attitude toward others. God Bless each of
you in your ministry and service to Christ.