Be ready and keep your lamps burning just like those servants who wait up for thier master to return from a wedding feast. As soon as he comes and knocks they open the door for him. Servants are fortunately if their master finds them awake and ready when he comes! I promise you that he will get ready ad have his servants sit down so he can serve them. Luke 12:35-37If we are servants of Christ I am wondering what kind of servants we are. I was thinking the other day about the people to whom the Lord will say, “Depart from me I never knew you…,” and wondering how we can be sure that we know Him. More correctly I should probably ask, how can we be sure that He knows us?
We have recently studied about knowing Him. To know Him is to know Love, and if we do not love one another then we do not love Him, because God is love. How do we really know that He knows us? We are known by our fruit, and we hear His voice (His sheep hear His voice). These are the evidences that He is at work in our lives, that we produce the fruit of the Spirit. This leads me to believe that if we are producing good fruits of the Spirit then we are showing Him to be present in our lives.
If He is present in our lives then He must indeed know us. In which case, we are known by Him and according to the scriptures He is our Master and our Lord. If Jesus is our Lord and master we are then His servants! Being servants, we need to be ready. We need to keep our lights burning and our voices ready to spread the Word! What is our motivation for serving the Lord? Why do we want to be servants of the Most High God? Is it to please man?
And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.” But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’”?
2 Chronicles 10:7-9
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:1-3
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. Romans 8:7-9
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD." 1 Corinthians 1:26-31How do we know if we are pleasing God or if we are pleasing our flesh? Duh! That one is an easy question, because our fleshly man is all about self. But how can we know that we are pleasing God instead of just pleasing man?
Our fleshly man wants to please our self. We want to do what we want, but we need to do what God wants us to do and be content with it. We are pleasing God if we are looking to what He wants for us. Looking to Him for guidance will make this come easier than if we just try and figure things out for ourselves. Still, if we try and work our way into His grace, we will fail. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we hear the Word, and learn how to follow after Christ and do as He says in the Word each day. When we do this we will know that we are serving Him out of Godly motives and not fleshly motives, when we put Him first.
So I need to ask myself, do I want to bring this meal to my neighbor because then my neighbor will think I am wonderful or do I want to bring this meal to my neighbor because she is in need? Who will get the glory? Will it be me or God? That is the true test, who do we want to get the praise for a job well done?
I am not saying it does not feel good to hear, “great job Teresa,” but when God gets the glory for something it is better. I know that all things work for good in my life through His work in my life. Therefore, when I am serving Him in my deeds, then I know not only am I bringing Him glory and praise. I am walking in the walk He wants me to.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:8-13We need to live our lives knowing that in all things we are content; that whatever He has us do, whether it is to take out the trash, or to serve a hot meal, or to speak a godly message, it's all for Him. We are only the tools of the Shepherd.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for guiding us and directing our paths. Thank you for leading us where we should go and allowing us to serve You and Your people. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Suggested Readings: Philippians 4:1-all; 2 Corinthians 4: 1-18; 1 Corinthians 1:1-31; Romans 8:1-39; and Luke 12-all.