Thinking Like a Servant
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One of the prerequisites for being a servant of God is to think like a servant. This would be fine if it wasn’t so impossible. We are all naturally wired to think only of ourselves.
Learning to give preference to others is one of the true marks of a Christian because it is so contrary to human nature. That’s why desiring it comes from God, and doing it comes through the Holy Spirit.
Paul said of Timothy: “I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares for your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:20-21, NLT).
Hidden in these verses is the secret to making an attitude of servanthood become a part of your thinking. It starts with Jesus. When you fall in love with Jesus, you focus on Him and worship Him. As you do this, you find out about Him—you get to know Him as you would a friend—and soon you come to know what matters to Him, until finally, you start to realize that what matters to Him, matters to you. This is not just a factor of familiarity, either. There is a supernatural element at work here as well. What matters to Jesus connects with the Holy Spirit in you, and the Spirit answers from deep inside you to the call of truth.
Other people mattered deeply to Jesus. He could read their hurt and pain. Scripture says He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Well where did that grief and sorrow come from if it didn’t come from the suffering of people around Him? In other words, He was carrying their grief. He was empathizing with their sorrow. Once a woman touched him in a desperate need to be healed, and He could feel the compassionate power go from Him even though He didn’t see who touched Him in the press of the crowd. He was that sensitive to the needs of those around Him.
Now truly, thinking like a servant doesn’t automatically make you one, but it goes a long way toward getting you there. If you are thinking like a servant, you are noticing others; and the more you are aware of others, the more the Holy Spirit can use you in reaching out to them. All this increases the opportunity for the gospel. People are simply not used to being served.
Take it from me, a guy who is not by any stretch servant material, it’s actually a relief to get off my most popular subject—me—and on to someone else. Ask God to help you think like a servant today, and I’m certain you’ll get a chance to be one.
Question: Where are there opportunities in your life (at home, work, church, or elsewhere) to “think like a servant”?
Thank you Tom. I appreciated your help
Bernard:
The author of The Search For Significance is Robert S. McGee. There have now been over two million of them printed. Get the copy with the workbook included in the back and be ready for some serious soul searching before the Lord.
You’re absolutely correct that these feelings can lead to discouragement. Believe me, I’ve been there. You sound a lot like me. It’s so easy to forget that we have been saved by grace and that God isn’t standing around with his tally pad keeping tract of all the “Christlike” things we’re doing. While we need to remain open and seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance day to day, it’s not about checking off each block on our to-do list so that we can say, “Wow, I was such a good Christian today. I’ll bet God is so happy with me.” When we’re his by the new birth, we are completely righteous in his eyes and that can never be changed. Then, as we simply try to be obedient to what we KNOW he wants us to do, we’ll have the confidence that he’ll help us each step of the way and that even if we “fail” he still loves us unconditionally.
Believe me when I say I’m still learning all of this along with you–I’ve lived my life as a perfectionist. I’m finding that perfectionism is usually caused by the effort to meet someone else’s expectations with the end result that we are constantly trying to meet our OWN expectations. And there’s just no winning when we try to do that because we’ll always be raising the bar a little beyond what we can attain. Rest in the Lord and know that he’s pleased with you simply for trying.
Thank you Tom, who is the author of that book? It might help in getting it.
Yeah and could it be that this feeling of never be doing enough might lead to discouragement? t is just that I never know for sure if I am doing what I am supposed to do or if I have done is what God wanted me to do in the first place.
I know that this page is for people who are not mentors so I am sorry if I am taking up time but somebody might be struggling like this and need the same kind of help. Thanks for your help
Terry:
While it’s true that our own needs take a high priority (call it self-preservation if you like), the Lord Jesus decrees that we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves. Therefore, others are to take just as high a priority as we do ourselves. Here’s a suggestion: After praising the Lord in prayer, ALWAYS then go to praying for the needs of OTHERS, then for yourself. In many cases, you’ll find that once you’ve finished intercessory prayer, you’ll find you don’t have as many “needs” as you thought you did. You may even decide you don’t need to pray for yourself at all at that time, because the needs of others seem so much more important than your own.
Bernard:
Most often, our feelings of inadequacy about “serving the Lord” come from our own concerns of rejection. I.e., we have a sense that if we could only do more, be more, somehow we’d be more in the will of God. The problem is, no matter how much we might “do,” we’ll still think we could be doing more. There’s no point at which we say to ourselves, “I’m doing enough.” Now, that’s not to say that there may not be specific things the Lord wants you to do and you are in some way putting them off or making excuses for not being obedient, but these are the exceptions and not the rule. Some of the things I’m writing here I’ve just learned for myself while reading and studying through the book, “The Search for Significance”. I’ve had it on the shelf for years, but have only now been using it because my wife is taking the study with a group. It’s a book I’d highly recommend for you and anyone who never quite seems to be what they think they should be in the eyes of God.
I serve as a mentor and other things but I sometimes feel I could be or should be doing more and I don’t measure up to the calling of being a servant. Does anybody have any thought on that?
It is easier to think of others once my own needs are satisfied. I find it not within my range to think of the needs of others while I am praying about my own needs. I will have to look up guide lines for intecessory prayer