I became extremely conscious of my need to cultivate the Christian virtue of humility when I first went to the mission field. I met people who were different from my socio-economic background, traditions, culture, race, ethnicity, and language. Some were very humble than other Christians I met at that time, but some were too harsh that I felt literally nauseous to deal with them. However, I am compelled by love of Christ to love them and share the Word of God to them. It was not possible to deliver the message of justification by faith through grace of Christ unless I demonstrated the Christian character of humility while preach, distribute the gospel tracts, or sell the gospel packets and the New Testament Bible.

Choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant are two different things.  We want to serve God as a volunteer in a social organization where most people give their spare time to work for certain time period. Christian ministry is not a social work organization, so we cannot choose to serve. People choose to serve because they want to work in their schedule. And some get into service expecting recognition and appraisal from others. When they choose “choosing to serve”, then can decide the time factor and people of their interest to serve. Contrarily, when we choose to be a servant, the act of being servant is highly motivated by humility. We have no choice to choose appropriate time or person to serve. We are commanded to serve voluntarily and follow his example as Jesus did.

Specific Suggestion

Sometimes, we work on our own strength without taking consent from God. Opportunities tempt us. Occasionally, we try to serve others with our all frantic energy and put our efforts in service. We try to do something on our own. When we serve people in a hope that we will be paid back reward from God, that kind of service most often turns to be merely a merit. Such a person always  crave for personal glory. If we submit ourselves as servant to serve others, we always will be taking delight in our simple service to people.

We should focus in the needs of people so that we might be able to serve them accordingly. The act of serving voluntarily develops the character of servanthood in us which becomes the mark of our permanent life-style. Serving people in need one or other way, we should always remember that the objective of our service should not be making name and fame our ourselves but building the community of healed and reconciled people in the body of Christ and glorify God.