“I never thought of that as serving Jesus!” I hear this a lot. We all tend to equate ‘serving Jesus’ with volunteering that is at church or that is specifically religious.
But St. Paul says, “. . . whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). M
artin Luther, the 16th century protestant reformer, taught that God uses all our daily tasks, paid AND volunteer, to provide for our neighbors. A truck driver delivering goods to the local store is God providing food for his children. An engineer designing a safety feature is God protecting his people. The people doing accounting or sales for a large company are part of God’s plan to provide a useful product or service.
As we’ve been talking about here at St. Peter, your tasks are also opportunities to join Jesus on his mission to redeem and restore all things. So join in! Be more aware of the people you work with and work for. Pray for them. Watch for opportunities to do a little good for them or share a little Jesus with them. People are eternal; our tasks are not.
What else can we do to add a little more Jesus to our serving?
- As you do a task, any task, think, “This is for you, Jesus.”
- When you make a meal or assemble the widget or read a story to the kids or clean the floor, picture God’s hands working through your hands to provide for people he loves.
- Spend a little more time each day with Jesus, in prayer and in his word.
- Before you accept a new task, pray about it and consider whether or not this is something God is giving you to do.
- Pray over all of your tasks. Ask him to give you what you need, and bless the results for His purposes.
Increase the amount of Jesus in your serving, and you’ll decrease the amount of “me.” Our natural “me” focus motivates us to serve from pride, guilt, obligation, perfectionism or a desire to please others. These motivations result in anxiety, disappointment, fear, and worry. Jesus himself overflows with grace and love. No one has too much of those!
This post is the third post of a series. The first post, Get Off the Couch!, includes inks to the full series.
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