Just as the servants in the PBS hit - Downton Abbey - serve with loyalty, dedication and pride, so we must ask ourselves if we are serving God with the same enthusiasm!
While knowing our shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. God shaped us for service to others, not self-centeredness.
God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we're not shaped! Your shape reveals your ministry, but your heart reveals your maturity.
This week's lessons give us the opportunity to do a self-evaluation of our heart for ministry/service. We look at six actions that will determine if we have the heart of a servant.
Service starts in the mind - it requires a change of attitude. God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements.
Real servants serve God with a mind-set of five attitudes...find out what they are and how you're doing! Download the lesson handout and audio link here.
Share which of the characteristics of a real servant you struggle with most. Remember, we're here to encourage, not judge!
I don't struggle with thinking of others more than myself...sometimes I lose myself in fact. What I do struggle with would be comparison or rather worry that my opportunity to serve will be given away or lost. I struggle with this even in a church setting because I have been overlooked and slighted many times in my life in academic settings and trying to work even when I was doing my best. When you have limitations of course someone else with no limitations will inevitably do a better, quicker, funner or more electrifying job than you will. It has happened over and over to me. So...I tend to expect to be thrown to the side. My job is to try to simply serve God and accept what He allows to happen. After all it may be so that something greater can be accomplished through the experience or the witnessing of by others.
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