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Service for the King
by Janice S Ramkissoon Service for the King (Saved and comfortable? or saved to Serve?) Case-study: Sister Loom has been a regular attendant and member for ten years. She has claimed that corner seat as her designated chair for the last five or six years now. She seems to really enjoy the 'praise and worship' part of service too. One day she was asked what gifts she thinks she has to contribute to the churchs ministry and she replied: "I'm waiting for the Lord to show me the way, until then I shan't get involved in anything, for I might miss my calling because I didn't wait". Seems to me that Sis. Loom is quite comfortable where she is. Now take a look at the journey of one believer, in the account below, then reflect on your own situation: ------------------------------------------------- The preachers are always preaching about Service and I'm always listening. But for each stage of my growth, the same message took on different meaning. At 13, as a youth in the Church and a new convert, 'SERVICE' was preached but didn't mean much to me. I heard the words but not the message. Later in my teen years that message to me meant helping out in any way that I can. This became the norm (much to my detriment) but the pastor of my last church preached on this topic, and service took on a different meaning. I did some soul-searching. I needed to know if I was 'saved and comfortable' or 'saved to serve'. That was the challenge our pastor left us with. I found that complacency had thus far made me comfortable and immediately, I became uncomfortable with my lack of spiritual growth. That message, or rather that one sentence from the message, started a change in me that later found me searching for answers and wanting to use every gift I was blessed with, to be of service. So, I prayed: "Use me Lord for Your service, as Your hands and feet here on earth. Put the words in my mouth that You want me to speak and in my thoughts, that You want to flow from each pen placed in my hands". And so, He started to use me. Trouble is - I didn't realise that He would start immediately. I thought there would be a waiting period. After all, I always heard church folks saying to each other to wait on God and in time He will make his plans clear. So I thought, now that I'm ready for God to use me, I'll just need to wait and He would train me up for this great big plan. Oh no! My God is quite funny that way, for I heard him say: "No time to wait, there's work for today". "How can this be", I contemplated, then the questions came rushing in:- "What do you want me to do?" "Where do you want me to go?" "I always liked singing, is it the choir you want me to join so I can touch lives with my voice?" "What about acting? I always liked that. And, Sister Gayle did say I blessed her heart, with that poem I read - could that be where my ministry rest?" Then I thought: "Should I be caught up with the Hows and Whys'?" So many of us hide under the cover of "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." But if we are not labouring what makes us weak? What strength are we waiting to receive? As a soldier of the Cross I just need to turn up for duty and leave the rest in His hands. So I gave Him my all: "Lord, I surrender to You. Use me as You please". Encouragement: Let us not procrastinate in choosing to serve the Lord*, for there are some lessons we have to learn, in order for God to perfect His will in and through us. So let us not worry about what it is He wants us to do - Just turn up each day for duty and He'll show you what the day's task is. Copyright 2006, Janice S. Ramkissoon Notes: *Joshua 24:15 (NLT) Janice, a freelance writer, lives in the UK and enjoys spending time with her husband, Vince and their son, Javin. She uses her gift to encourage others towards a deeper relationship with God, through her inspirational pieces while her travel articles provide general advice for the holiday-maker. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |