Service To Others

After thinking about honoring God with prayer, Bible reading and memorization, I realize I also need to honor God with my time and Christian service.  We are all given twenty-four hours in every day.  How we use those hours may well define the kind of person we are; our priorities and values.

            There are countless ways available for us to entertain ourselves; from sports events to television shows; from video games to concerts and cruises to shopping, or dancing and playing games to hunting and sewing.  There are as many options as there are people!   I would not even suggest or hint that any one of these diversions is in any way bad.  I just wonder if we use our recreational time as a means to avoid doing an act of service for the Lord, even when we know it is needed.

            Each person is given a unique ability and placed in a special place to carry out a distinctive service.  No one else is exclusively capable to serve in just the way God wants; to the specific people he wants (to those around us in the world we live in) than we are.  But do we recognize the God given talent and abilities we have in the place we find ourselves?   When we do, everyone wins!  The friends, neighbors, children, seniors or whomever it is you can serve are definite victors when their need is met.  Yet, as the one who serves, we too, are victors because when done with a humble heart we can know without any doubt that even if our service isn’t heralded here on earth, we will be rewarded in heaven when we stand before our Creator.

            There was a recent call for workers in our local congregation.  The situation of few willing workers is dire; in fact so dire that if people don’t soon step forward, programs long established in our church will begin ending because there is no one to lead.  

It isn’t just about leading a Sunday School class, or being a G-kids leader.  It’s about seeing a need someone has and meeting it.  And there are hundreds of ways…literally!  To name a few:  take a senior or other person to the store or to a doctor’s visit, prepare and deliver a meal, offer an occasional babysitting service (free) for a mom who needs to shop, has a doctor appointment or who just needs a break.  Mow someone’s lawn, invite someone unusual to dinner, shovel snow, teach a craft or something you are informed about in a home school setting, consider offering a night’s rest to a homeless person, be a mentor, buy someone a book (or give one away that you’ve already read), offer assistance to someone who is working on a new idea, write someone an encouraging note, check on a shut in, and the list just goes on and on!  

Be creative!  Look for or create ways to serve someone else!  When we do this, our time becomes Gods because we are choosing to live and demonstrate our faith rather than just giving it lip service.  When we choose to give, it really is “win-win” and the rewards are much greater than we can imagine.   And above all, we will be honoring God with our personal gift, talent or ability and our time.