A week of growing as a servant

And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and sit down to eat? Luke 17:7

First thing that comes to my mind is that this situation is completely backwards. The servant is to be the one serving not the one being served. How many times knowing that I am a bondservant do I expect for some type of reward? How many times do I get done doing something that I was never technically told to do and I expect someone to come along and tell me just how wonderful I really am?

I am a bondservant it is my reasonable service to lay everything down and bring glory solely to my master. I should not expect for my master to reward me for doing what I was told to do. Even though I know that my God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. When I do extra my sole reason for doing it needs to be to bring glory to the only one that deserves it.

I should not be complaining because I did not receive the accolades that I thought that I deserved. You know what I technically deserved? Death that is what I deserved and that was taken from me by the blood of the lamb. Why would I being a servant take the glory and the rights that my master should have? Because I am sinful and for this I need to repent. I need to repent from being a bondservant that wants to be treated like the master. Because if I really wanted to be treated like my master I would actually be hated and despised.

Luke 17:8, “But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.’”

How many times do I tend not to give God the first fruits? How many times do I come before God and I it is all about what I want, not how I can serve Him? I ashamed to say that I cannot count the number of times that I have done both of these things. And I know that I am not the only one who does this. In fact there is one Bible character that comes to mind when I think of not giving God the first fruits and coming to God with selfish motives. And this person is Cain.

We all know the story of Cain. Cain had a brother named Abel. And when it came time to give to God Abel gave God the very best of his livestock because he simply wanted to bless the Lord’s heart. Because of this God blessed Abel. Cain on the other hand, gave God some of his produce but he gave it to the Lord begrudgingly and to get a blessing from the Lord. And because of this God did not accept his offering.

Yikes! That is pretty intense, can you imagine if every time you did something with a motive of what can I get out of this, God would call down frothy sky and say, “Don’t do it because I don’t want it.” Like I said before that is pretty intense. I want my offering to the Lord to be something that blesses Him. I want Him to have the same reaction that my Dad had when I was little and I would make him “food”.  My Dad would look so happy and say that he was so thankful for it and I want my actions and motives to give God that reaction. That is my desire!

Luke 17:9 Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.

This kind of goes with the first one that I did this week. How many times do I think that everything that I do should have some type of reward? I think it has to do with the society that I grew up in. At least were I live children get an allowance for doing jobs around the house. I was never given an allowance because my parents said that it was my job as part of the family to help out around the house.

I am apart of God’s family and I should not expect something extra for just helping God’s house. It is my job to love the other members of my family by picking up trash when it is lying around the house. It is my job to stop and make sure that everyone that comes into the house feels welcomed. All of these are my job because I am apart of the family of God.

Not only am I apart of God’s family but I chose to be a bondservant because I want to serve him for the rest of my days. I chose it, so why do I refuse to do something because it does not have the reward that I think that I deserve?

Luke 17:10, “in the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good for nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty.”

When I look at this verse the part that sticks out to me the most is the “good for nothing slaves” part. That is pretty strong language! Good for nothing, everything in me wants to yell, “I am good for something!” But if I look at myself honestly I can say that with out Christ loving within me I can accomplish nothing of worth.

This is not some pity party. Already I can hear some of you yell, “Haley don’t think that way about yourself! There are a lot of things that you can do to help people.” And to a certain point you are right, do you want to know what I can do? I can obey and get out of the way. But even this I need the power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t have a low self-esteem, I have Christ esteem. This simply means that I do not look at myself and evaluate myself with the same eyes that the world does. I simply choose to look at myself the way that Christ did. A sinful wretch that the God of the Universe died for because He loved me so much. As a girl whose worth is far above rubies. As a daughter of the risen king. But all of my worth comes from Christ. And since He never changes I feel pretty secure in who I am in Christ.

So I can freely say I am a good for nothing slave, I just do what God wants me to do and I will happy in that. I can’t say that I am always happy to say that I need to obey but It is something that I want.

1 Corinthians 9:19, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.”

We are free in Christ, He has made us alive and free from death. But I have chosen to be a bondservant of Christ and by doing this I have said that I will do what He has told me to do. And He has told me to go and make disciples. And Paul is saying here that he is willing to give up his freedom in order to make disciples.

Am I willing to give up my rights to make disciples? Well the answer should be an easy one especially since I have already given up my rights when I chose to be a bondservant. Right? Well that’s the thing, not only am I a bondservant but I am also a living sacrifice. And as it has been widely stated a living sacrifice can get off of the alter. I sometimes as a bondservant and a living sacrifice want to take back my supposed rights and leave whatever situation I feel like. This is wrong.

Before Christ I had “rights” and all of those “rights” made me feel empty. And then I came to Christ and I gave Him control. I sing the song that says, “Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul, I live for you alone.” And I never felt more free in my life then that moment that I gave up all of my “rights”. And God is asking me to give it up on a continual basis so I can reach more people for Him.