I grew up in a home where my mom was always volunteering us girls for stuff—and almost always we didn’t want to do it! We were greeters at women’s events, watched people’s kids in the nursery, gave our testimonies, a few of my sisters sang, and everything else you can imagine. Serving at our house was a family affair. She even got my grandfather, who lived with us for 15 years, assembling packets along with us for a marriage conference!
I can tell you that my tween and teen self did a lot of complaining at the time. But what I didn’t realize was the gift she was passing on to us. As she served, she brought us along to see how it was done. We were in training, and we didn’t even know it. And as a result, later when we were on our own and out from under my mom’s pushes, we all found ourselves serving—because we wanted to! It was part of our discipleship and in the process the complaining became joy.
As a Christian, serving is part of our discipleship—a natural overflow of living a life of gratitude for all Christ has done for us. And to think that we have the privilege to partner with God in His work here on earth—specifically in the church home that He has placed us.
Just like in our blood families, there is also a role for everyone to play in our spiritual family…something for everyone to do. Without everyone’s gift of service, the body is incomplete… wanting.
Paul expounds on this so eloquently in 1 Corinthians 12:15-27:
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Our lives aren’t ours to keep, they’re meant to be given away. Our time isn’t our time, our resources aren’t our resources, and out gifts aren’t our gifts. They’re meant to be shared to bless the Body of Christ.
Every single person is needed to build up the Body of Christ and keep it working smoothly. In fact, as Paul says, each person is indispensable and everyone suffers if we don’t work together joyfully giving our gifts away to the people God puts in our lives.
Do you know what happens when you serve? You will discover gifts you didn’t know you had, develop deep and lasting friendships, and experience blessings galore. Acts 20:35 says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”—and it really is.
Other blessings of service:
- Serving surrounds, us with other believers who help us follow Jesus.
- Serving grows our faith.
- Serving allows us to experience God’s presence in new ways.
- Serving is good for your soul.
Something happens to us when we serve. I love what Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, “We are never more like Jesus than when we are serving Him or others. There is no higher calling than to be a servant.”
Our lives aren’t ours to keep, they’re meant to be given away. Our time isn’t our time, our resources aren’t our resources, and out gifts aren’t our gifts. They’re meant to be shared to bless the Body of Christ.
Look around. There are so many wonderful, life-changing opportunities for you to serve—and the Body of Christ needs you. For those of you who haven’t taken that step of faith yet, ask God to help you get off the sidelines and step out of your comfort zone in faith—your life will never be the same and you will never look more like Jesus!
