Day Twenty Nine: Accepting Your Assignment

What was interesting or inspiring to you in the reading today?

This was probably one of my favorite chapters. I needed the affirmation when it comes to serving. Ever since my brothers died, I've had an ever-increasing compulsion to make a difference with my life. Sometimes the compulsion is overwhelming and ends up causing some form of depression. Am I making enough of a difference?  So it was important for me to read this chapter and get some solid reminders about God's perspective on serving.

Here's some of the quotes I liked:

You were put on earth to make a contribution.
You weren't created just to consume resources - to eat, breathe, and take up space.
God designed you to make a difference with your life.
You were created to add to life on earth, not just take from it.
God wants you to give something back.

The Bible says, "God has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do." Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your purposes.

The Bible says, "It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work, not because we deserved it but because that was his plan." You're not saved by service, but you are saved for service.

"God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God." We don't serve God out of guilt or fear or even duty, but out of joy, and deep gratitude for what he's done for us. A saved heart is one that wants to serve.

In the Bible, the words servant and minister are synonyms, as are service and ministry. If you are a Christian, you are a minister, and when you're serving, you're ministering.
We are healed to help others.
We are blessed to be a blessing.
We are saved to serve, not sit around and wait for heaven.

Have you ever wondered why God doesn't just immediately take us to heaven the moment we accept his grace? Why does he leave us here to fulfill his purposes? Once you are saved, God intends to use you for his goals.

Regardless of your job or career, you are called to full-time Christian service. A "non-serving Christian" is a contradiction in terms.

Anytime you use your God-given abilities to help others, you are fulfilling your calling. The Bible says, "Now you belong to him... in order that we might be useful in the service of God."

In some churches in China, they welcome new believers by saying "Jesus now has a new pair of eyes to see with, new ears to listen with, new hands to help with, and a new heart to love others with." Today thousands of local churches are dying because of Christians who are unwilling to serve. They sit on the sidelines as spectators, and the body suffers.

For Christians, service is not optional, something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came "to serve" and "to give" - and those two verbs should define your life on earth, too.

Maturity is for ministry! We grow up in order to give out. It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe.

The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, "Who's going to meet my needs?" and starts asking, "Whose needs can I meet?" Do you ever ask that question?

You are going to give your life for something. Service is the pathway to real significance. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives.

God wants to use you to make a difference in the world. He wants to work through you.

For some of us, there is a bit of confusion about serving: is it something I do at the church facility, does it mean to be part of some ministry program? Service and ministry is a way of life that permeates everything everyday. Your attitude of service shapes what you do and say at home and at work and at school and at church and in the grocery store and the gym and the restaurant.

Do you have the attitude to serve? Or are you more focused on getting served? What are you good at that could be a gift to others, that could be helpful to others? And have fun doing?