Serving and the Disciple

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In the words of the popular 1980s hymn writer, Graham Kendrick, “This is our God, our servant King; He calls us now to follow Him…”: serving God and others is paramount in the life of the Disciple. Jesus, when He walked this earth set an example for us to serve God and our neighbour, whoever that happens to be.  

Open Heart

The Trinity demonstrates God’s ‘open heart’ and we are called to lay our lives down for others. In Romans 12:1-2 we are told that laying down our lives for others is our “true and proper spiritual worship” in response to God’s great mercy to us. Opening our hearts to others makes us vulnerable to heartache, but there is also great joy as we please God by opening our hearts to Him and responding to the love that He has for us and others.   

Open Eyes

In Ephesians 5:13-15 the Bible tells us to “Wake Up!” God wants us to have our eyes open to the sadness and poverty that is around us and not pretend that it’s not there. He wants us to respond with His love and in His strength, just as He responded to the deprivation of mankind by sending us Jesus and leaving us with His Holy Spirit. When God is central to all that we’re about we can ask Him to see things the way He sees them, giving us wisdom and insight into people’s lives so that we can respond with His love in our hearts.  

Open Door

God’s primary purpose is to ‘father’ us; that is why Jesus came so that we are no longer ‘orphans’ (John 14:18), but “..adopted into son-ship according to His pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:5). John 3:1 tells us that we are “His children”, and as His children, we will demonstrate His character in what we do; just like you reflect some of your parents’ qualities (good and bad!), God only has loving, kind gracious and merciful qualities to reflect when we walk closely with Him. Are there people in your life that God is calling you to ‘adopt’ into your home life; someone on the fringe who needs acceptance and love? In James 1:27a “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…..”    

Open Table

Romans 12:13 tells us to “Practice hospitality”. Some synonyms for ‘hospitable’ are:- ‘welcoming’, ‘friendly’, ‘warm’, ‘open’, ‘generous’, ‘kind’, ‘cordial’ and ‘social’. Even when you don’t feel you have much to share, share it anyway. We don’t need to always provide a gourmet meal for people to share, just ourselves and what we have. I’m reminded of the story of the five loaves and two fishes; there will always be enough!  

Open Diary

We are also called to share our time and talents with others. Your time is probably the most important gift you can give and many people spell love, T.I.M.E. Giving of your time is costly and not always convenient. In 1 John 3:16, it says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  

Open Purse

In Proverbs 11:25 it says, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed”. We are called to be generous with our money and our resources. As Jesus’s disciples, everything we have comes from Him, and we need to have a light handle on all that we own to allow God to use it for His purposes and glory. Again and again, the Bible tells us to be generous, and there is great blessing and joy in giving out to others.  

Open Book

This can be taken two ways. First, we are called to be an open book in our relationship with others. In other words, we need to be transparent in our relationships, not hiding our faults with a ‘Christian’ mask of hypocrisy, but opening ourselves up to authentic relationship.  

Lastly, but by no means least, we need to always be ready to share Truth from the Word of God. We cannot serve others in our own strength, but only in the strength that we have received from God by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to ensure that we are filled with Truth by the reading of the Bible and sharing its Truth whenever we can.