Serve: September 10, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

SERVE

DEFINITION:

Attend or wait upon; work for; to meet the needs of and subject one’s will to that of another.

SCRIPTURE:

You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. I Samuel 12:20

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

How many times have you said to yourself or to others and even prayed to God, saying that you wanted to serve God and asked for His guidance? And then a few hours later you were off on your own and doing things your way and not serving God. This was the case of the Israelites.

The Israelites repeatedly turned away from God and did things their way. God’s way was for Israel to be governed and led by a judge chosen by God. The people rejected God’s plan for them and insisted on a king to rule them. Despite the warnings from Samuel of the hardships they would endure under a king and despite his reminder that the Lord God was their King they demanded a king (I Samuel 12:12).

God allowed them to have their own way. But when they realized the evil thing they had done, by their choice, they asked for Samuel's help and prayers (I Samuel 12:19). Samuel gave the following response to the Children of Israel, "Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart" (I Samuel 12:20, above). Even when we do the wrong thing God does not give up on us. He wants us to return to following Him and to serve Him.

What a wonderful example for us today. When we fail to serve God, as we know we should, we cannot undo what we did yesterday, or the day before, but we can act today. Samuel in verse 24 urged the Children of Israel to, "Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your hearts; for consider what great things He has done for you."

When we fail to serve the Lord we need to humbly ask for His forgiveness and acknowledge His faithfulness to us. God wants us to serve Him today and we cannot let yesterdays failures bankrupt tomorrow's victories.

We can remember the great anticipation we experienced right after we were married arriving in Seoul Korea for our new responsibilities with World Vision. We arrived with some fear but totally dedicated to serving Jesus with all of our hearts, minds and souls. Arriving to a war torn country, to new customs, to a new place to live, unable to speak the language and far away from family and friends quickly served to remind us that we could not do this on our own. We needed to totally rely on Him. If we are willing to serve the Lord with our whole heart, He will not reject us. He will give us the victory.

The certainty of the return of Christ is probably the greatest reason we need to serve the Lord daily. The anticipation we have of this great event should really overwhelm our hearts with excitement and give us a new desire and a sense of urgency to serve our Lord.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Proverbs 3:5-6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

PRAYER:

Thank You for the great anticipation You have given to us in expecting Your soon return to take us as believers to spend eternity in heaven with You. Keep us faithful in following You and allowing You to lead us to serve You in the way You desire us to serve.