Serving God by Serving Others
My daughter’s prayer as soon as she awakens each day, is “How can I serve you today, Lord?”
I’m sure God loves when we come to Him in prayer, but usually, when we check in with Him, it is only to give Him our long prayer request and wish list. Can you imagine how He must feel when the only time we go to Him, is only to present Him with our wants, desires, and needs?
Then there are those who never ask anything of Him. They take pride in not having a “wish list”, but a “thanksgiving list”. God is such a good, good Father and He is receptive to each request we make. He loves our hearts of gratitude and thanksgiving.
If we know He sees and hears us every time we pray and every time we come to Him with hearts of gratitude, then we should visit with Him as our truly best friend. We have wonderful friend-to-friend conversations with each other.
The idea of God as a friend doesn’t diminish the fact that He is our Heavenly Father. He is also our closest, best friend. I would never go to my best friend and just ask her for things and tell her what I need her to do for me. Neither would I incessantly thank her for being my friend. I would tune in to my friend’s heart and we’d mutually share about our families and what’s going on in our world. I’d ask her if there was anything I could do to help her.
God is our Friend Who is ALWAYS loving, caring, guiding, and directing us. So, maybe, our conversations should start like my daughter starts her day by volunteering to serve God. Or in another way, to pray: “Lord, what can I do to bring You joy today?” That simple question will lead to answers.
Here is how He answered me yesterday. I worked at the Vincentian Family Center’s Thrift Store. A precious older woman regularly visits us from her wheelchair. She asks if I’d help her find a new dress (not really new, but new to her). We found just the one, but then she wanted a pair of shoes. We sell all shoes for $5 each. I helped her try on the shoes. Oh, bless her feet, dear Lord. They were swollen with so many issues. As I knelt before her, I thought of my Lord’s example of washing His disciple’s feet. How could I do less?
I took her items to the cashier who said: “You realize that you are her personal stylist!” I knew and teared up as I realized I was serving my Lord as I served this precious lady. I’ll never know for sure, but I like to think I brought God joy and that was enough.
We often assume that it’s the bigger things that bring God joy – like giving large sums of money to a church or charity. Certainly, it’s beautiful to have that kind of wherewithal, but when we serve others, we are beautiful in our Father’s eyes and that matters to God, too.
As we begin our everyday conversations with God asking, “What can I do to serve You today, Lord?” our spiritual ears will open. We will discover that some of the incidental events of our day are miracles as we partner with God to love people.
Jesus said in John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”