Humility and Servant Hood

Something that has been on my heart, as of late, is the subject of humility and servant hood. You know, Christ came not to be served but to serve, and as Christian it is our duty and our privilege to serve those around us.

A scripture passage that comes to my mind even as I am writing this is Galatians 6:9-10. It says, “And let us not grow weary in doing good. For in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” What really sticks out to me, as Paul writes this, is how he instructs us to do good, but to “especially” do good to those who are believers along with us. This is an interesting concept, as well as one of the hardest things that there is to do. Sometimes it is so much easer to love someone who is not a Christian; because you know that they have not been saved and experienced the love of God like the rest of us. For those that have though, we sometimes hold much too high of a standard for them and if they don’t act how we would like them to we treat them unkindly or make judgments toward them that we don’t have the right to make. There is no prerequisite for someone to receive good from us, especially for a fellow Christian who is a brother or sister in the faith. A song comes to my thinking process that goes well with what I am writing, it is called, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love.” I think that it is fitting as we think about being humble and serving others. It ought to come with love because without love it means nothing (I Corinthians 13), but with love, that is, God’s love in us and through us, someone can be changed by one good deed towards them. The other thing that I have been thinking about in regards to servant hood and humility is the fact that we cannot do it on our own and we are in a desperate need for the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and understanding that we need in order to serve those around us in love. We cannot do it on our own. Take some time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work within you to make you a servant to all. “Make me a servant, humble and meek. Lord, let me lift up those who are weak, and may the prayer of my heart always be, make me a servant, make me a servant, make me a servant today.”

May that be the prayer of all of our hearts today and in the years to come.

by Justin Kantonen
originally posted August 2008