MATTHEW 20:20-28.
DR CHARLES STANLEY
*Christians are identified by a variety of names in the Bible-such as believers, brothers, and saints-but one title we seldom call ourselves is “servants of Christ.”
However, that is exactly what the Lord tells us to be. After His disciples wrangled about who was the greatest, Jesus turned their worldly thinking upside down with a call to become great in the kingdom by being a servant of all.
Christ is not just our Savior but also our Lord and Master, and we have a responsibility to follow His example. Just as He served His Father by caring for people, so we serve our God by lovingly meeting the temporal and spiritual needs of those around us.
Service is essential for spiritual growth. God is continually at work in the believer’s life, transforming his character into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). A major hindrance in this process is self-centeredness. Serving others is one of the tools that the Lord uses to set us free from the slavery of selfishness.
Service is required to achieve God’s purpose for our lives. The Lord has designed specific works for each of us to accomplish in our lifetime (Eph. 2:10). If we only take in and never give out, we will miss much of what He has planned for us.
Never forget that you have a high calling which is realized only by lowering yourself to the level of a servant. Look for the opportunities that the Lord will give you today to serve someone. Take your place alongside Christ, who was the ultimate servant of all.
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“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” ~Helen Keller
