Thursday, June 2, 2011

Activating Jesus In Our Lives - By Serving Him

Romans 6:22 says “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Everyone in this life is a slave to something. God says that if we have become His by Salvation; then we are slaves to Him! Have we ever thought of our Salvation experience like that?
What does being a slave mean? It means a ‘person who is the property of and wholly subject to another’. In other words; it is one who is in ‘service’ to another because you belong to a master.
Our Master is Jesus Christ because He bought and paid the price for us! People in the Bible were aware of this and taught this to others and even today are still teaching it through the Word of God.
Romans 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, James 1:1 and Ephesians 6:6 are some examples of servitude to the Lord.
If our life belongs to God then we should have no problem giving our life over to Him once we are saved. We would be humble in the Lord and recognize what a GREAT and WONDERFUL thing He has done for us. This is hard because as humans we want to ‘control’ our lives ourselves and yet the Bible says that if we give God control of our lives; He will NEVER leave us or forsake us!
The giving of our service to God should not be confused with God’s Will for our lives. We have discovered through study that God’s Will for our lives is that we would serve Him in obedience and love all the days of our lives.
Service is using our gifts, talents, love, money and any other resource we may have for God’s Glory! He desires that we serve Him so that others may KNOW Him!
How are we serving today? Are we giving 100% of ourselves to the Lord or are we holding back some in reserve in case we need it for a rainy day? God says to give all of ourselves to Him and He will direct our paths and take care of our families and lead us where we need to be.
To find the complete POWER of God we are asked by God to GIVE everything! Is this easy to do in this life?
Serving God is our reasonable service so that we may give back to the ONE that has given EVERYTHING for us.
Jesus poured out His life for us and it is out of our obedience to Him that we would follow His example and pour ourselves out for others. ‘Others’ are our families, our children, our spouses, our church and others.
Here are some ways to measure the value of ‘Servanthood’ in your life:
       Surrender – Are we surrendered to do God’s work or are we surrendered to our work in God’s name? Surrendering to God and saying ‘Here is my life Lord, do with it what you will and use me in any way that is needed’.  Has there been a point in time when we have done this? James 4:17
       Submitted – Do we HAVE to do God’s Will or are we WANTING to do God’s Will by serving Him? Submission to God with the life He has given us tells us where we are in our walk. Are we ALL in or do we give God just a little? These are hard questions that touch the soul. One of the keys to successful life in Christ is submission to Him. Satan CANNOT stand it when we are submitting ourselves to God! James 4:7
       Sacrifice – What are we willing to give up to serve God? Sacrifice is the price we pay to serve God! We HAVE to give up ourselves in order to be fully in the Lord. The beautiful part of sacrifice is that when we WILLINGLY give to the Lord; He gives back more than we could ever ask. Serving God comes at great personal cost – but it is the most beautiful cost we could ask for. Are we sacrificing ANYTHING today to love God? Mark 10:29-30
       Sharing – What do we have that someone else needs? It is just stuff. Sharing with others the goodness that we may have is beautiful in God’s eyes. Some things that just sit around our houses and gather dust could be the very thing that someone else has GREAT need of. Do we have something like that today? Can we willingly share it? What about our time, can we share it with others? Philippians 2:4
       Skills – Just like we have to develop ‘skills’ to do work in this life; we must develop ‘skills’ to be a servant. It does not just COME to us to be a servant. WE GOT SKILL! God says so and we just have to have belief in those SKILLS through His POWER! 2 Peter 1:3-4
       Secret – When was the last time that you served God by serving others in secret and no one knew it but you and God? Having a secret like that with God shows the MATURITY of servanthood in Christ! It is always good to to something for someone else that only you and God know about! Matthew 6:3-4
       Stand – The day will come when we will have to KNOW what to do because it is IN US! Being a servant of the Lord teaches us how to STAND and someday it will be what we have to do – simply STAND. Are we ready to do that? Learning how to be strong in the Lord takes great personal sacrifice and ‘standing’ is what we should be doing. Servants stand up for their Master. Are we doing that today? Ephesians 6:13
Be strong in the LORD and the POWER of His might! God is the answer to whatever is going on in your life. Believing Him and living that out will be the GREATEST thing you will ever do!

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