Look around. What do you see? Whom do you see? As Jesus walked the earth, he saw people as they were and met them at their greatest point of need. From physical and emotional issues, to their deepest pressing spiritual concerns, Jesus served the needs of others. Famously, He said that He “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Serving others was why He came. Jesus is the starting point for thinking about serving.
This is important to remember because it’s easy to start thinking about serving and feel immediately burdened. Instead, when we think about serving, it’s freeing and empowering to remember that Christ has first served us, making us God’s children and that we serve out of the grace that God has given us in Christ. Perhaps Peter says it best when he writes that “each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace” (1 Peter 4:10). We serve because Christ has already served us.
Jesus has served in the most astonishing way because His service comes all the way from the heights of heaven to the depths of the earth.
In Philippians we read about what Jesus gave up simply to walk among us: “Christ Jesus… who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6–7).
Jesus was willing to take what was rightfully His and give it up for the good and sake of others. This isn’t simply a detached theological statement from Paul about Jesus becoming a human. Paul is presenting Jesus as an example of what it means to consider the needs of others. He urges us to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus”, and that will mean knowing that serving means giving (Philippians 2:5).
Serving will usually mean sacrificing.
Taking Inventory
Jesus’ astonishing act of service raises a question for us: if Jesus was willing to give up his position with God in eternity, what do we have that we can give? This is not a rhetorical question. I’d suggest that writing a list can actually go a long way to helping us serve well. Knowing what we have and what we can part with can help us both develop a healthy view of our possessions, but also help us identify specific ways that we can serve others.
Take some time and look at your life. Make a list or inventory of the things you have. Then find a way to identify those things on the list that you are able and willing to part with. This may be an eye-opening experiment. Wrestling with this list may reveal the things that we hold dear and it may challenge our motivations to serve or not to serve. I don’t pretend that writing such a list will be easy, but I do believe it is a helpful way to get us thinking about how we can serve others or how we can better serve those we are already serving.
This list shouldn’t be kept to possessions. It should also include an examination of our calendar to see where our time might be available (or can be made available). An honest look at our budget can help too. Asking what gifting and skills we have that can serve others is vitally important as well.
Pray as you make these lists. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see these things as both the blessings they are from God and the potential blessing they may be to others (thinking again of Peter’s instruction above to use the gifts that God has given us, 1 Peter 4:10). Allow the Spirit to move you and try to be sensitive to where he may be leading you.
Taking the chance
List in hand, we can explore opportunities to give and serve. Finding opportunities to serve and give isn’t difficult. Let’s be honest, the needs seem endless both near and far. Some opportunities to serve others will present themselves without warning (like the story of the Good Samaritan), while others may involve more planning. These lists can allow us to recognise the things God has blessed us with so we can then take the chance and bless others.
It’s worth saying that it’s okay to ask yourself what you are most passionate about. Different things will pull at different heartstrings. There are plenty of needs to be met. We don’t have to feel guilty if we are not meeting all of them. Find the need and the opportunity that both breaks your heart and gives you the most joy to be involved with. Once you’ve found it, or once it’s found you, remember that list and serve others as Christ has served you. In giving of those things you listed, you might just find you gain more than you lose (Luke 9:24).
Written by J.R. Hudberg. He’s an Executive Editor with Our Daily Bread Ministries and the author of Encounters with Jesus and Journey Through Amos.
This is based on a longer Discovery Series called ‘Going the Extra Mile: Learning to Serve like Jesus.’ You can read this more in-depth study on serving here:
