Are you 'Called to Serve' ? In His Word 9-20-21
Recently
we discussed and studied a bit about serving, it brought to my mind the
scripture of choosing whom you will serve. How do we know if we are serving the
Lord or just serving ourselves? Is there a difference between serving God or
man? How can we tell the difference?
Let’s
look—In His Word!
“The
Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous
than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you,
and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the
Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the
oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Know therefore
that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of
love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his
commands. Deuteronomy 1:9 NIV
And if it
seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as
for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15
"No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is
not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of
the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feeds them.
Are
you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to
his stature? Matthew 6:25-27
It is easy to follow man. We don’t
always realize it but that is what we do when we try to fit the mold that
someone else is in or has for us. Often times the Lord will have us step out of
the normal way of praying, or worshiping, when we are in His presence. Okay
don’t get scared I am not going off the deep end here!
What I mean is that sometimes the Lord speaks to Jane in one way and to Fred in another. The Lord knows that Jane loves worshiping Him in music, songs and hymns and spiritual songs etc. But Fred likes to read and hears His voice better when he is reading the Bible or another Godly book. My point being God knows how to reach each of us where we are, so we do not need to worry if we do not line up to what our friend is doing. We also are each on our own walk with the Lord! That means that we will not all be at point B at the same time as one another… you may be at point G while Jane is at point K, so things may look different from each of our angles. In other words, just because you read the same scripture it does not mean that God is always going to give you the same idea from it.
How many times have we read the
scriptures above and thought of the financial focus? I know that is what first
comes to my mind when I read that I cannot serve God and mammon. Because I have
been trained to think that way I do. But the other day while reading I thought
of its meanings… Mammon can mean money, but in searching the dictionaries I
found that in some instances it means righteous. I thought on that and began to wonder how that
could be.
The more I researched on serving God
and…. Whatever else I could find, I found that the focus was basically the
same. We need to be careful that we are not following after man-, or man-made
objects, that we are not working towards the salvation of our life on earth,
but that life eternal with Jesus Christ!
When we serve money, we are working
and doing what we do just to get more money to do stuff with here on earth….
Even if we give to the needy as the Word instructs us to do, we are still
working in a small plane. When we are taking the time to grow our selves and
His kingdom by sharing the Word of God, praying for one another, fellowshipping
with one another etc, then we are serving the Lord on a higher ground. We are
not just looking at this corruptible world we live in, but we are looking
beyond that to what will be. The eternal life that we are assured in our
salvation.
So how can we tell if we are doing
things for God or for our self-gratification?
Here’s
about a ten-minute check up!
-
Check your
self!
Psalm 139- is a Psalm and a prayer I like to pray when I feel overwhelmed with
the world, I am in. I pray and ask God to search my heart and cleanse me of
anything that makes me self -seeking.
-
-
Check your
Master- Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters. Either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and
despise the other. Be sure you are following your God, not man. This
includes following any false teachers! We need to be sure we do not just
believe what we hear but that we are lining it up with the Word of God! No man
is perfect, and we all have faults, so we need to be sure that even your
favorite preacher gets his word checked with His Word!
-
-
Check your
priorities!
Matt 6:33- But seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.-
Be sure that you are serving Him for His glory not your own. After all we know
that our purpose in this world is to please Him, to serve Him, to do His Will
not our own. So if we keep these priorities straight, and seek Him and His
glory first and foremost we should be able to keep things in perspective!
-
-
Check your
Perspective!
Eph 1:13-14- In Him you also trusted,
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also,
having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. -Remember
that perspective is important. It’s not about me! It’s not about you! It- your
life, your service, your walk, even your job- is all about doing His will! This
world is temporal, but our life in Christ is permanent! Sealed with the love of
Christ! Sealed by His blood on Calvary’s cross! Hallelujah!
You
and I know all of that stuff up there, but you know and I know that we can
easily be distracted with what our kids need to eat, or the house that needs
cleaning. Maybe your distraction is how to make enough money to pay the bills
this week? What ever it is we need to be sure of what we are working towards.
Remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, it is the enemy, or the
powers of darkness, wickedness in high places, and low places that we are
fighting against! We need to look at one another with the love of Christ and
remember that each of us is His handiwork, we are all being changed from glory
to glory! None of us is perfect no not one! None but the Lord is perfect, though
God sees us perfected through His redemption of us; we are not there yet! God
is awesome that He allows us to be in His presence because of Jesus alone! Not
because of whom we hang around with, or what we do for our local church but
because He loves us! It’s all about Him!
And Him only should we serve, not man, not even our most highly esteemed person
in our lives should be between God and us. My hubby is even my number 2 boss!
My God is my number 1!
Heavenly
Father, help me to keep focused on You and doing Your will in my life. Help me
to serve you and not do things for self-gratification. Help me to love others
as You would have me love and see them through Your eyes… in Jesus’ name, amen.
Ps
115:1-Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of
Your mercy, because of Your truth.
Suggested
Readings for this week.
Monday:
Psalm139 (Read the whole chapter if you want!)
Tuesday: Psalm
115:1-19
Wednesday:
Ephesians 1:1-22
Thursday:
Mathew 6:1-34
Friday: Luke
16:1-31
Weekend readings:
Psalm 140-141
***If
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to feel free to write me back and let me know what the problem was that we
might go over it together and seek the truth in love.
In
His love,
Teresa
M. Wilson
www.teresawilson.com