If you were to rate yourself in your service to Christ, say, one being not much of a servant, and ten being right up there with Paul, where would you place yourself today. Do not belittle yourself here, as it were, we are looking for balance between humility and the actual service that you are doing for Christ.
Count what you will into this equation, your church attendance and service to it, include the finances that you offer up to the Lord without hesitation and with joy, take into consideration the amount of time that you spend witnessing to the lost about the Savior and helping your brothers and sisters in Christ, and of course we can add into this the time that you spend in the missions field, or in an area relative to it. Last but not least, which of course should always come first, the time that you spend not only in the Word of God, diligently studying to show yourself approved, (2nd Tim. 2:15) but your prayer life, perhaps the most characteristic trait of a believer.
Alright then, you’ve probably taken a few minutes here to think about this, so where are you at, what number fits the life of the servant that you are for Christ. Now think of this, is that the same number that the Lord would say, is the service for Christ that you believe you are performing that merited that number in your mind the same number that the Lord Jesus would agree with, and if not, and only you can say this, what are you planning to do about it if that number is much lower than what you would desire it to be. Herein is the question then in this letter to you, are you procrastinating are you waiting around for the Lord to change you, to conform you into the image of His Son, or are you seeking for his guidance daily.
If the number that you came up with was much lower than what you would like it to be, there are several ways that we can modify the aspirations that we have in our current walk with the Lord, and each and every one of them can only be found in the spiritual realm, the world will be of no assistance to you here. The first is repentance, telling the Lord that you are sorry and that you are prepared to submit to Him fully, asking for His forgiveness for being an unprofitable servant, and preparing your heart to be obedient. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) This is nothing we should fear, no one can say in all honesty that they believe themselves to be at a ten here, but it might be remiss of us to say that we are less than a one, all of Gods children serve Him in the way of His choosing, but not all of us choose to serve when He calls, or always in the way that He asks us to.
My friends, we have been justified, (Rom. 5:1) we are being sanctified, (1st Cor. 6:11) but we have yet to be glorified, then all of us will be at that number ten, at least in our desires to serve, but until then, we have work to do, and that work can only be done by the Holy Spirit through us if we are willing to submit to His will, our Lord does not force us to serve. We all at one time in our walk with Christ knew a fervent desire to serve him with all our hearts, we were ready to die for Him that day, but the willingness wains when the world intercedes into our thoughts. “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” (2nd Cor. 8:12) What we have to offer the Lord is all that He asks of us, what we do not have He will supply, if we are willing to serve, if we have a heart that knows that all that He calls us to do will glorify His name, and in that service to Him, we will be found pleasing in His eyes.
“When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Prov. 16:7) We are our own worst enemy when it comes to our service to the lord, we procrastinate, we make promises to ourselves that we intend to keep, but something always comes up, or so we like to tell ourselves. We know that daily time in the Word of God is important, we know that our prayer life needs more than a little work, but the world calls, and it calls very loudly. Our time is valuable to us, but not as valuable as it is to the Lord, and my friends, even as you are reading this letter, your time is running out. One of the main driving forces of my life, whether it is in the material world or the spiritual, has always been never wanting to hear myself say “I wish I would have.” I can think of few things sadder, beyond the eternal separation of the lost from the love of God, than that of a Christian in heaven, reaping no rewards from the Lord, and saying “I wish I would have.” Saved, yes, profitable to the kingdom of God, you decide.
“For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.” (Psalm 51:16) Our Lord knows when we are fooling ourselves, he can see through all of the false promises, especially when they are made to him. I believe there comes a time when He does not give up on us, but he does not listen as much, for He tires of the distorted truths that we try to make ourselves believe. You know that you should be more submissive to his will, you have felt the prompting of the Holy Spirt enough to know for a fact that you need to rely more on Him and less on your excuses. My friends, if we continue to neglect his calling, if we continue to rationalize our time away from him, we will eventually quench the Spirit, (1st Thess. 5:19) and we will stay at that low number for the rest of our lives.
Strive to be in the front row of heaven, ask the Lord to bless you with a heart filled with humility in service to Him, pray without ceasing, do not look for the time to study His Word, make the time, make it a daily habit. He will open the doors, He always does to those who spend the majority of their time seeking His will in their lives. “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.” (Jer. 29:12) I speak here not of the Lord, only of my own personal thoughts, but if you are of no service to Christ here in your time on earth, of what service do you believe you will be in heaven.
