...serve the Lord
Our verse ends up with a very simple directive, doesn't it? Serve the Lord. What a great phrase to plant in our hearts this first day of a very new year. Serve the Lord.
How are you serving the Lord? Don't get bogged down into thinking that serving the Lord requires something organized or something huge (although service to the Lord can fall into those categories). But serving the Lord can be doing something that the world views as insignificant, it can be doing something as small as...hmmmm...as giving a cup of water to someone who is thirsty. (Mark 9:41)
Service to our Lord is so much more about our hearts and our attitude than about the actual deed done. The biggest, most noticeable deed done with the wrong motivation is not a true service to God. And just as we've talked about, this section of Romans is stressing our attitudes toward others. So if we have committed to a service, and yet do not show true, sincere love to those whom we are serving, then does that qualify as serving the Lord? For the true definition of the word used for "serve" in this verse is to be a slave, to give oneself up to. So when we serve the Lord as we are instructed to in this verse, it is with true abandonment to ourselves, and total commitment to our Master and our Lord, subject to Him as slaves to His cause. And that cause is bringing the world to Him.
So, serve the Lord. Be His slave in the task of saving the world. Do it in whatever way He calls you to...not taking on someone else's call...hear His call to you. And serve the Lord in 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment