John 13:1-30
How many of us are routine driven people? I am! It can be so easy to go through the motions every single day, every single week, for months, years, and forget the why. When I am intentional and start my day understanding why instead of focusing on the what; my day is much more fulfilling and peaceful.
The problem that I see so many people run into, and I myself have run into, is that we serve out of repetition or a feeling of obligation. Or we tell ourselves that we’ve always served here. We don’t remember the why to our service, so we feel disconnected. We wake up Sunday morning and suddenly dread going to church because it’s our week to serve. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and remind ourselves that we committed and we can’t let people down and we are called to serve. I don’t say that in a condemning way, but it’s important to be honest with ourselves! You are not alone in that feeling.
But I do encourage you that when (notice I didn’t say if) that happens, that you must truly take a pause and remember your why. We serve Jesus because we are grateful for what He did on the cross for us. We serve Jesus because we want to bring honor and glory to His name. We serve Jesus because we are eternally indebted.
I love the story in John 13 where Jesus washes His disciple’s feet because it tells a simple, but incredibly humble and powerful truth. See, I doubt anybody wanted to wash another person’s feet. It was likely caked in dirt, animal waste and a smell that water just couldn’t rinse away. Sometimes we don’t want to serve others; and I don’t just mean in church! Sometimes we don’t want to love others because they’ve hurt us. Or they’ve lied to or about us. Or they’ve deeply betrayed us. Or they are just unlikable and hard to be around. Serve them anyways. Jesus set the prime example that we are not greater than others; to put others before ourselves even when we don’t want to.
At the end of the day, it is about our heart posture. The Lord knows our hearts! It is better to not serve at all than to serve with a poor attitude. We must remember to serve because our hearts are overflowing with gratitude towards Jesus. We know that we can never earn our way to Heaven or the love of Jesus by serving (in other words; works) but we can look more like Jesus by serving humbly and gratefully.
The problem that I see so many people run into, and I myself have run into, is that we serve out of repetition or a feeling of obligation. Or we tell ourselves that we’ve always served here. We don’t remember the why to our service, so we feel disconnected. We wake up Sunday morning and suddenly dread going to church because it’s our week to serve. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and remind ourselves that we committed and we can’t let people down and we are called to serve. I don’t say that in a condemning way, but it’s important to be honest with ourselves! You are not alone in that feeling.
But I do encourage you that when (notice I didn’t say if) that happens, that you must truly take a pause and remember your why. We serve Jesus because we are grateful for what He did on the cross for us. We serve Jesus because we want to bring honor and glory to His name. We serve Jesus because we are eternally indebted.
I love the story in John 13 where Jesus washes His disciple’s feet because it tells a simple, but incredibly humble and powerful truth. See, I doubt anybody wanted to wash another person’s feet. It was likely caked in dirt, animal waste and a smell that water just couldn’t rinse away. Sometimes we don’t want to serve others; and I don’t just mean in church! Sometimes we don’t want to love others because they’ve hurt us. Or they’ve lied to or about us. Or they’ve deeply betrayed us. Or they are just unlikable and hard to be around. Serve them anyways. Jesus set the prime example that we are not greater than others; to put others before ourselves even when we don’t want to.
At the end of the day, it is about our heart posture. The Lord knows our hearts! It is better to not serve at all than to serve with a poor attitude. We must remember to serve because our hearts are overflowing with gratitude towards Jesus. We know that we can never earn our way to Heaven or the love of Jesus by serving (in other words; works) but we can look more like Jesus by serving humbly and gratefully.
Posted in Devotional