The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived. In our me-first culture, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.

Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.

This is so contrary to the world’s idea of greatness that we have a hard time understanding it, much less practicing it. The disciples argued about who deserved the most prominent position, and 2,000 years later, people still jockey for position and prominence.

Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but few on servanthood. Everyone wants to lead; no one wants to be a servant. We would rather be generals than privates. Even Christians want to be “servant-leaders,” not just plain servants. But to be like Jesus is to be a servant. That’s what he called himself.

While knowing your shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. Remember, God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness. Without a servant’s heart, you will be tempted to misuse your shape for personal gain. You will also be tempted to use it as an excuse to exempt yourself from meeting some needs.

God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped. If you see a man fall into a ditch, God expects you to help him out, not say, “I don’t have the gift of mercy or service.” While you may not be gifted for a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one who is gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you’re needed at the moment.

Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity. No special talent or gift is required to stay after a meeting to pick up trash or stack chairs. Anyone can be a servant. All it requires is character.

It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant’s heart. How can you know if you have the heart of a servant? Jesus said, “You can tell what they are by what they do” (Matthew 7:16 CEV).                                                                 (RICK WARREN)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1: 5)

This word from the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, and   then God  goes on to detail His calling on Jeremiah’s life. Jeremiah was to warn Judah of God’s coming judgment against them.  He became known as the ‘weeping prophet’ because of his deep sorrow over the punishment Judah was to receive at God’s hand.  But aside from setting up Jeremiah’s mission, this text also gives us principles that explain what God has in mind for each of us:

God knew us from the womb:  Before our parents knew us, friends knew us, pastor knew us, church members knew us, teachers knew us, bosses knew us or anyone else knew us, God knew us.  He knew every feature and facet of your being.  So it doesn’t matter what anyone else has to say about you—good or bad—if it doesn’t agree with what God has to say about you.  He knows you better than anyone, yourself included.  And He knew you first.

God gave us purpose before we were born:  Some of us had wonderful biological parents who were materially and emotionally capable of raising us and taking care of us, praise God.  Some of us did not.  Some of us came from foster homes.  Some of us were adopted into different families.  Sadly, some of us think we’re mistakes because of our familial origins.  But before you were born God planned out a purpose for you here and now—something uniquely suited to your God-given skills and abilities.  Even if your biological parents didn’t plan for you to be here, God did.  And He’s planned out a purpose for you that will make life worthwhile.

God invites us to be a part of His redemptive work:  Once we learn who God made us to be and to what purpose God has for us, He invites us to become part of the international mission to spread the Gospel and usher in Christ’s second coming.  As a body of believers we are to participate in bringing the future promise of heaven to life on earth today.  Preaching and teaching to those who haven’t heard, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, providing for the poor and homeless, and other things Jesus Himself did when He was here.  There is no higher calling than doing God’s will here “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)

(RICARDO ALLEYNE)

Love requires action. It’s not a thing we try to
get for ourselves, but instead is an action we express to others through  sharing and serving.
Because love is an action, I believe there are three different forms of love God has instructed us to demonstrate, or “live out.” Each one needs to be in balance so they can work together.

#1 Loving God
So, how do you express love for God? By telling God, “I love You”? Singing praises to Him? These are good things, but they only scratch the surface.
We show God we love Him through obedience because actions definitely speak louder than words. I believe our level of obedience grows as we get to know and experience His love, goodness and faithfulness in our lives. Our desire to follow and obey the Lord’s commandments increases as we increase our love of God.

#2 Loving Yourself
When Jesus talked about the greatest commandment of all, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and said we are to love God with all our heart. But He also added the second greatest commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (See Mark 12:31.)
There’s something important here that I think people often miss: You cannot give away something you don’t have in you. How can someone love another person if they don’t love themselves? “You cannot give away something you don’t have in you. ”
We all need to accept ourselves, embrace our personalities and even our imperfections, knowing that although we are not where we need to be, we are making progress. Jesus died for us because we have weaknesses and imperfections, and we don’t have to reject ourselves because of them. God wants us to love ourselves and enjoy how He’s made us!

#3 Loving Others
If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still [spiritually] dead. (1 John 3:14).
Loving others is the only way to keep the God-kind of life flowing through you. God’s love is a gift to us; it’s in us, but we need to release it to others through words and actions. Left dormant, it will stagnate like a pool of water with no outlet.
The act of loving others is one of the most exhilarating things I have experienced. I feel excitement stirring in my spirit and soul when I plan to do something to make someone else feel loved and cared for. You can experience the same exhilaration just by “loving out loud.” Here’s a challenge: Think of three people you know who could really use a gesture of God’s love. Then think of creative ways you can express His love to these people, and do it. I guarantee you will feel a wonderful sense of fulfillment and joy afterward.                                                                      (JOYCE MEYER)

The apostle Paul suffered. He was imprisoned. He was beaten, often near death. He took 195 total lashes from his Jewish kinsmen on five occasions. He took three pummels with rods. He was once stoned — and then also shipwrecked three times. Then there are the endless dangers of travel in the first century, plus countless other experiences mentioned and unmentioned in the New Testament.

How did he take so much pain? So much loss? How did he prepare for suffering? The answer is in Philippians 3:7–8 – Counting Everything As Loss

Basically, the apostle took a long look at his life apart from Christ. All the things that he valued — his Jewish pedigree, his place in the upper echelon of religious society, his law-keeping — he took a long look at this list and wrote “LOSS” over it.

It wasn’t just the past values of his personal life. It wasn’t just “whatever gain he had.” Paul looks out into the future and declares everything as loss. Everything out there that could pass as positive. Everything good that he has yet to experience and everything which he will never experience. Compared to Jesus, everything is loss.

To consider Jesus better than everything else in the world is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

And that’s how Paul prepared for suffering. He saw Jesus as superior to everything else. John Piper lays it out this way: Suffering is nothing more than the taking away of bad things or good things that the world offers for our enjoyment — reputation, esteem among peers, job, money, spouse, sexual life, children, friends, health, strength, sight, hearing, success, etc. When these things are taken away (by force or by circumstance or by choice), we suffer. But if we have followed Paul and the teaching of Jesus and have already counted them as loss for the surpassing value of gaining Christ, then we are prepared to suffer.

This means that if we treasure Jesus, then every aspect of suffering in our lives is losing something we have already declared as loss. If when you become a Christian you write a big red “LOSS” across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ.

None of us knows the sorrows that may meet us tomorrow and are sure to meet us if Jesus tarries. We don’t know what hardships God will call us to walk through. But even though we don’t know them, we can prepare for them. And the way we prepare for afflictions then is by gaining Jesus now. It will not minimize the pain. Not at all. But we will know, even in the darkest night, that Jesus is our God and all, that He is our Rock and treasure, that He is enough. The way we suit up for our sufferings tomorrow is by cultivating our love for Jesus today.                                 (JONATHAN PARNELL)

My name is Abby Rosenboom and I came to know Christ at a very young age. I grew up going to church with my family. I was surrounded by incredible, godly people who loved me and cared for me. I knew many stories in the Bible, and had several verses memorized, but there was so much more I was missing.I started high school in 2008, and it didn’t take long before sports and school completely consumed my life. One of the biggest struggles during that time was living up to the expectations of those around me. I come from a family full of success in academics, athletics, career, and so much more. I felt an immense amount of pressure to be the best. Although this pressure led to achievements I take pride in, I found myself miserable by the cycle it took to get me there.

The summer after graduating from high school, I was invited to go on a Project Serve mission trip to Nicaragua with Youth for Christ. During small groups one night, I remember saying that I didn’t need God. I had worked so hard on my own for my success that I didn’t feel He was important or necessary in my life. It wasn’t until months after that I began to think about what happens to all I’ve worked for when I die. Who was going to care about my accomplishments in my teenage years? I would just be another face in the high school yearbook. As morbid as those thoughts were, they ultimately led me to the realization that I was living my life for meaningless things.

In 2013, I started volunteering at Campus Life and my church.  Here I have the privilege of working with amazing students who enrich my life and fill me with so much joy. I am also blessed beyond measure by the outstanding youth ministry leaders who encourage me and invest in my life like no one has before. I’ve learned so much about God and His heart for me, and for all people, and it sparked my desire to show that love to others. The more I allow God to use me, the more my faith grows.

If there is one truth I have learned through this all, it is this – believing in God doesn’t change your life, surrendering to Him does.

A man and his wife pulled into a gas station to refuel their car. As the gas tank was being filled, the gas station attendant began to wash  the  windshield. When he
finished, the driver of the car said, “The windshield is still dirty. Wash it again.” “Yes, sir,” the attendant answered. As he scrubbed the windshield a second time, he carefully looked for any bugs or dirt he might have missed. When he finished, the man in the car became angry. “It’s still dirty!” he said. “Do it again!”

The attendant cleaned the windshield a third time. By now, the driver was fuming. He yelled, “What’s wrong with you, man? This windshield is still filthy! I’m going to talk to your boss to make sure you don’t work here another day.” As the man was about to get out of the car, his wife reached over, removed his glasses and wiped them with a tissue, then put them back on his face. The driver was terribly embarrassed when he realized the windshield was spotless.  The problem wasn’t the gas station attendant, but the driver’s dirty glasses.

We all have blind areas in our life that we are unable to see. Sometimes, it can terribly damage our lives and the lives of others. Spiritual blindness is not a small matter. So what makes us spiritually blind? Actually, our spiritual eyesight is supposed to progressively improve until we go to heaven. God often uses difficulties in our lives to enlighten our soul and improve our spiritual sight. But it’s also possible that our spiritual eyes become blurry due to these difficulties and so we fail to see God’s glorious hope for us in heaven. Our spiritual sight can also become blurry due to other spiritual reasons, like the sin of pride, bitterness, anger, grudges, bad theology, false assumptions, fixed ideas, or any deceptiveness of sin. We have to examine ourselves. Is your spiritual vision improving or deteriorating? If it’s not improving, we must examine ourselves to see what is blocking us from having 20/20 spiritual vision. We need to remove these hindrances through sincere repentance.

What do you see day-to-day? Do you see the glorious kingdom of God coming soon? Are you truly hoping for God’s kingdom to come? If our spiritual vision is blurry, it’s hard to run the race to the end. It’s hard to give ourselves fully to the work of Lord. We cannot run the race to the end. May the Lord restore our spiritual vision and the joy of His salvation in us day by day so that we can run the race of our faith to the end.                    (BENELLY)

1) THAT YOU DO JUSTLY: That we act with fairness, integrity, and honesty is at the heart of what it is to follow God. How you deal with your neighbor, your boss, or even a stranger is the heart of how you deal with God. This is Jesus’ message in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. You cannot separate behavior from belief –  that  is  exactly  what  was  going  on  in   Israel  and   it’s
exactly what is going on today in the church. Belief and behavior are integrally linked.

2) THAT YOU LOVE KINDNESS: To surround ourselves with compassion, empathy, and steadfast love for each other. It’s interesting that this term stands in the center of the triumvirate of Justice and walking with God. It tempers our justice and it flows from our walk with God. Justice without mercy is barbaric – yet mercy without justice leads to destruction. God calls on his people to love kindness or mercy. We are to be a people who love people with God’s own heart. Jesus said that the world would know us by “our love for one another.” Why? Because it is the distinctive pattern of the heart committed to God. The heart that has been touched by the love of God is seen to exhibit and flow with the compassion, forgiveness, and love of God for others.

3) THAT YOU WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD: To walk humbly with God means…
• Match His Course – walking in the same direction as Him. You cannot go your own way, do your own thing, and be your own person and expect God to bless it. The blessing is in walking with God not asking Him to walk with you.
• Match His pace – we are called to walk with God – to accompany Him – not to run ahead or lag behind. Running ahead always leads us down wrong paths. Lagging behind we lose sight of the One we are following and often get lost.
• Match His purpose – become His disciple. We are not coequals with God. We are the creation – He is the creator. We are the disciples – He is the Teacher. We are the servants – He is the master. We are the children – He is the Father. Understand the relationship. Too often we act with God like rebellious teens act with their parents – struggling for control – struggling to be number one – God’s requirement is that we walk humbly with Him – acknowledging His sovereignty, His leadership and His Lordship. The wonder is that He has invited us into that relationship.

Gods requirements for us are simple
Live right – with integrity and justice
Love right – with compassion and mercy and steadfastness
Walk with Him – lives as disciples to the Most High God.                   (DAN CALE)