Forward Friday

Today's Forward Friday is from today's Revive Our Hearts program. You can read a transcript of it here. It is pretty lengthy, but well worth the read. I was able to read it over lunch today.

Today, Nancy Leigh DeMoss tackles servanthood. I love how she began today's broadcast.

It’s a lot easier to be a servant at 9:00 in the morning than it is to be a servant at 4:00 in the afternoon. After spending all day with active toddlers or a parent who’s in the hospital or a pile of paperwork, acting out of a servant’s heart can get old.

I can relate to that comment in some way. I think that when I get home from work after 5, that's it, I'm done, kick my shoes off and the night is mine to enjoy with doing whatever. But that is selfishness and pride. I remember commenting one time to my caregroup about how I get through the day and I remember saying openly, "Knowing 5 pm is coming soon." And we all had a good laugh because many of the ladies are wives and mothers who don't have a clock out time. They are wonderful examples to me of servanthood that Nancy discusses in her broadcast.

Part of Nancy's broadcast included characteristics of a servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ. I want to highlight the first one because it was such a good reminder to me. I also think this is the most important characteristic of a servant because it describes where servanthood must come from. Nancy states,

One of the first marks I see in the Scripture is that when you are a doulos of someone, you are the servant, the bondservant of the Lord. It speaks of a relationship of dependence on your master. You are dependant on your master to meet your needs. You are dependant on your master to provide for you.

I love that passage in Psalm 123:2 where it says, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God.” A servant looks to the hand of her mistress or her master to provide for her, to meet her needs, to give her her food, to give her the supplies she needs to do her job. The Scripture says we look to the Lord to meet our needs.

I was grateful for this reminder, because at times it can feel like I am giving, giving and giving and I start to worry how God will provide time, energy, finances, a car that works, etc., to serve in the areas I believe he's called me to serve in as well as do the things I need to do, like laundry, cook and clean, etc. I'm not super-woman, nor should I strive to be. God is not looking for a super-woman to serve him, but a woman who is humble to look to Him and trust Him to meet all her needs.

In closing, I want to share a story from last week that highlights a special servant who is a dear friend of mine. Last week, I was entering into a busy week at work as well as recovering from a very busy weekend that was very full. I was also coming down with a cold so I was good about getting extra rest and not pushing myself. I remember thinking a couple of times during that week about getting my house clean. I remember thinking and talking with God about having a clean house and thinking it was my pride. Since I was not feeling well, I wasn't going to push myself to clean my house if it was going to make me more sick doing it. I resolved not to clean my house and to trust in God with the situation. Well, my good friend Danielle called that week and as we were talking she asked if she could help with anything and she specifically asked about cleaning my house. I was immediately humbled by the kindess of God to pour out his grace on such a small thing and graciously accepted her offer. When she came to clean my house, she was humble in asking how I wanted things cleaned and she even cleaned my toilets! It was such a blessing! Thank you Danielle for serving me and being a vessel of God's grace to me and others!

Toodles!