Devotions

I Choose to Serve

Jesus said, "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant" - Matthew 20:26

We've been looking every week at snapshots of different choices we have that can change our lives forever. Here is a choice that will absolutely change your life. When you decide,

My life is not going to be about myself.

I'm going to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

I can't change the world, but I can change my own destiny.

I know what God wants. I know what God's looking for.

I'm going to be a servant.

Your Christian life will never make sense to you until you learn how to serve by rolling up your sleeves and jumping in. At our church we call it "shouldering weekly kingdom responsibilities."

Until you serve, your Christian life will always be an obligation. Godly disciplines will feel like burdens until you get off the bench and into the game. Spiritually speaking, you'll never get the wind in your sails until you commit to imitating Christ in regular, humble, faithful service. You'll only know the duty and never the delight of the Christian life until you serve God with your whole heart, whatever that specifically means for you. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." What's more, you'll never experience long-term growth in your Christian life until you serve in some kind of personal ministry.

We don't have to ask God if He wants us to serve, He has called every one of us into a lifetime of service: "It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." - Phil. 2:13. God wants to do something great with you so whatever He's calling you to do, do it with your whole heart. Others may never assign greatness to your life, but in serving Christ you will know you have lived a great life.

To search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply foolhardiness but utter insanity.

Calvin, John

The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.

Packer, J. I.

To my fellow men a heart of love; to my friends a heart of loyalty; to my God a heart of flame; to myself a heart of steel.

Augustine of Hippo

The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world, and make that man holy, and put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.

Ravenhill, Leonard

Christ is like a river. A river is constantly flowing, there are fresh supplies of water coming from the fountain-head continually so that man may live by it, and be supplied with water all his life. So Christ is an ever-flowing fountain; He is continually supplying His people and the fountain is not spent. They who live upon Christ may have fresh supplies from Him to all eternity; they may have an increase of blessedness that is new, and new still, and which never will come to an end.

Edwards, Jonathan

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity - hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory - because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.

Packer, J. I.

Love Never Fails

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
-- 1 Corinthians 8-13

In the last sentence of the Bible's well known "love" chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 is a beautiful profile of love itself: "Love never fails" (v.8, NKJV). Have you ever asked the obvious question--Love never fails what? Here it is in summary: Love never fails to win. Let me point out two ways love can conquer what might be ailing your relationships.

1: Love never fails to conquer selfishness.

I am selfish and so are you. We never have to work at putting ourselves first--we've got that one down. But notice how:

"Love is patient and kind"(v. 4) Selfishness is mean and demanding but love overflows with kindness.

"Love does not envy or boast" (v. 4c). Love is not arrogant because it's not selfish.

"Love is not . . . rude" (v. 5a). Selfishness insists on the spotlight but love is not demanding or unreasonable.

"It does not insist on its own way" (v. 5b), because it's not selfish.

"It is not irritable or resentful" (v. 5c) because it's not selfish.

So love conquers the biggest obstacle in me, selfishness.

2: Love never fails to conquer skepticism.

Over time, it's easy to doubt that anyone is ever going to change. Your family disappoints you and you want to bail but love holds on. Like no one else, our family members can hurt and disappoint us. They do foolish things, and say wicked or hurtful words. In those moments, you want to run. But love does not sell out in the crisis. Love still believes the best; it doesn't keep score. Love trusts again. Love finds a way to give an opportunity for God to work. Love waits for God's agenda to be accomplished in their life. Love is being used by God to transform that person.

When I choose not to love, I'm in God's way but when I choose to love, God's helping me, and I'm part of the solution. In our wounded moments we think, we sometimes forget how desperately we hope others will give us another chance when we fail them.

Love never fails? Yes, love is part of the solution. Love is a tool in God's hands to work through you and transform your relationships.

Lord, thank You for manifested Your love among us by sending Your only Son into the world, so that I might live through him. Thank you that I can know love, not because I love You, but because You first loved me and sent Your Son to be the payment for my sin. Father, help me to love others as the best evidence that Your love has captured me. Amen.

Read 1 John 3:11-24. Insert your own name and your loved ones' name into these verse.

Think of someone in your family or close circle of friends. What would be the best way for me to communicate love to them today?

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.

Calvin, John

Treasure Hunt

"Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" -- Matthew 6:20 -- 21

Only two things are going to heaven with you. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Luke 21:33). God's Word is going to heaven and God's people (by God's grace) are going to heaven. Just those two things are going to last forever.

Your heart is with your treasure. Your treasure is with your heart. What you love most becomes treasure to you. What you treasure most becomes what you love. Those two are inseparable.

If your treasure is your career, your heart will be at work. Your treasure absorbs most of your time. If your treasure is your reputation, you come out of your seat when someone says something negative about you. Your reputation is your first love.

Perhaps you treasure your possessions. You could see one of your kids run off into the world and might lose some sleep about it, but if a hundred dollars flew out the window of your car, you would cry about it for a year. Your priorities are wrong.

If your treasure is your hidden pleasure, your private-whatever, your heart will be captive to that secret. Your treasure will be the focus of our imagination. If any of the above pursuits are your treasure, they are receiving from you your best resources,time and energy.

When the chips are down, you're going to go with your treasure. Your treasure serves as your default mind-set. When the sun goes down and you've come to the end of another day and you lay your head on a pillow, you think, I've got my treasure taken care of, because it's got my heart.

I wonder if any of this hits home. Are your greatest joys family joys? Are the things that delight your heart the successes of your family, the arrival of your children, and the key milestones in their lives? We all have different family makeups, but whatever your family is, aren't they your greatest joy?

What are your greatest burdens? My greatest burdens are those of my family. Why? Because I treasure them. Everything is on the line when my family is hurting.

Most people would agree that their family is their treasure. So why the gap? Why aren't their hearts always there? Some might say, "I couldn't agree with you more, James. God forgive me, but I really do spend my time on stuff that is not my priority. I say I love my wife and kids, but spend most of my time with them on cell phone calls for work. I plan an evening home with the family and then sit for hours in front of a TV or computer screen, downloading useless entertainment or information. I just get sucked into it. How can I change? How can I make my family my treasure? I really want them to be my number one human priority."

Well, you've got the first step down: admit it's true -- they are the treasure but you're not treating them that way. I'm not a super-smart guy, but here are two other things I know for sure will help: Be passionate about them and tell them so. Study them as the most fascinating people you know. Show them you are becoming an expert in all things them. Make your time with them the subject of your greatest prayers and planning. Make your understanding of them your highest ambition and your greatest goal. When you do that, you will begin to experience your greatest joys being with your treasured family. Then, express your commitment to them. At the center of a family-first priority is commitment. Sure, you're going to have conflict and challenges but underneath it all is your total, unswerving, unalterable, lifetime choice to do life together under God.

A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.

Whitefield, George

Promises, though they be for a time seemingly delayed, cannot be finally frustrated.... the heart of God is not turned though His face be hid; and prayers are not flung back, though they be not instantly answered.

Cruso, Timothy

A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.

Edwards, Jonathan