The choice to honor and prefer others above yourself is a rare gift. A quality that each one of us can possess if we choose to. In John 13 Jesus said, you see how I am serving you, that’s what I want you to do for others. Serving others is always a choice.
We get to choose to take our gifts, blessings, and calling in life and use it for the greater good—to help and serve others.
If I’m being brutally honest with you, I can always measure my extent to serve by my internal responses. How do I handle another man’s blessings? How do I respond when asked to do something I don’t want to do? How do I react when my friend gets promoted to a position that I’ve always dreamed of? Am I willing to give up my blessing, title, position in order to benefit another?
My responses often serve as indicators of whether or not I am encompassing the heart
of a servant. It’s in the moments when my selfishness is peaking that I ask God to break me. Break my heart for others. Rebuild my responses, Lord, so what flows out of me is a heart to serve and love others well.
Make the unnatural natural for me by Your spirit. Douse water on the flames inside that insist I need to have my own way and replace it with the heart of a servant.
Courage to serve means that you will gladly lay down your position and title in order to help
another person. It means you don’t walk around demanding respect and prominence, but rather esteem others greater than yourself. It is a willingness, of sorts, to allow God to use you in whatever means He deems necessary. It is a condition nurtured within the heart.
Now let me tell you what serving is not. Serving is not laying down your God-given identity and purpose. Some of the greatest servants I’ve met have been some of the most confident, on-mission people I’ve ever encountered. Tragically, I have also rubbed shoulders with people who lay down their God-given mission for a season, or even a lifetime, in order to serve every need that made itself available to them. They forsake what God has called them to do in order to meet the demands of others. Abashedly, admittingly, I have been this person. It is not a wise way to live.
When you abandon God’s purpose for your season, that is disobedience, plain and simple. And although every purpose for your life will be rooted and grounded in serving others, you must distinguish what part you play and what role only God can play.
Remember, the courage to serve is measured by your heart, not necessarily by how much you do.
You will not be able to meet every need that comes your way. You are not God. Trust that God will have His own way to fill that need in the lives of others. Don’t turn a blind eye when it is clearly in your power to help, but neither should you sacrifice obedience to God in order to carry something that wasn’t meant for you to carry.
In the long run, believing and obeying God will have more impact on others than anything you could ever do. Embrace the courage to serve and allow God to birth a servant's heart at the core of who you are. As you walk in full obedience to Him, may your eyes be open to the ways you can serve others along the journey.
"Serving others is one of the most fulfilling parts of life."
Want to hear more about how scripture relates to this topic. Simply click this link and write "Chapter Eighteen" in the subject line for a free PDF download of Courage to Serve.
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Want more resources? Check out this book on Amazon called The Generosity Factor by Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A.

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