Serve: December 26, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY DECEMBER 26, 2013.

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 and then prayed saying that you wanted to serve God? And then a few hours later your sincere intentions are forgotten and you are doing things your way and really not doing anything to serve God.

When you read about the Israelites you will see that repeatedly, they turned away from God and did things their way. After the death of Joshua, God provided judges to rule over them. For over 350 years the Israelites went through cycles of rebelling against God and were overrun by enemy nations. When they were in danger of total destruction they would turn back to God and God would then provide a God-fearing judge to deliver them. The Israelites rebelled over and over and God would save them over and over under these judges.

God’s way for them was to be governed and led by a judge chosen by God. The people rejected God’s plan and insisted on a King. Despite the warnings from Samuel of the hardships they would have to endure under a King they continued to insist that they wanted a King. They forgot that the Lord their God was their King. (I Samuel 12:12)

God allowed them to have their way but when they soon realized what they had done they asked Samuel for help and his prayers.  We can read Samuel’s response in the verse above. Samuel saw they were afraid. He began by saying, “Do not fear” and then he called on them to turn from their wickedness and serve the Lord. Even though we do the wrong thing, God does not give up on us. He wants us to repent of our disobedience and return to serving Him.

When we fail to serve God, as we know we should, we need to realize that we cannot undo what we did yesterday, but we can act beginning today. We need to learn to humbly ask God for His forgiveness for our disobedience and acknowledge His faithfulness to us. God wants us to serve Him today and we cannot let yesterdays failures bankrupt tomorrow’s victories.

Serving the Lord has a direct tie to obedience. The Israelites had to become obedient to God’s will before they could serve Him.

Our children came into this world to be served. When they were hungry they wanted to be served their milk immediately. As they grew it was necessary to teach them to serve but we couldn’t teach them to serve until we taught them to obey. When they were old enough our children were given responsibilities of service in our home whether they liked it or not. Yes, there was often grumbling. We would hear things like, “Why me?” or “Why do I have to do everything?” In spite of their complaints they did their responsibilities because we taught them that God commands, “Children obey your parents.”

When children are taught to obey God they will desire to serve Him. What children are taught as a child will carry over to adulthood. What we see in each of our children today is a servant heart which we thank the Lord for.

With certainty we look forward to with the soon return of Christ which is by far the most important reason we need to serve the Lord daily now. The anticipation of this great event should 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 Psalm 100:1.

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands.

PRAYER:
Thank You for the great anticipation You have given us in expecting Your soon return to take us to spend an eternity with You in heaven Keep us faithful and willing to serve You in our walk and in our talk, moment by moment. As parents guide us as we teach our children to live for You and obey You and desire to serve You and others.