Serving Without Expectation

July 27

(Luke 17:7-10 NIV) ““Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? {8} Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? {9} Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? {10} So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.””

(2 Corinthians 9:12-15 NIV) “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. {13} Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. {14} And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. {15} Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

(Philippians 2:3-8 NIV) “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. {4} Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. {5} Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”

God doesn’t exist to serve us -- we were created to serve Him. Entitlement is not in the disciple’s vocabulary. Mature faith serves without the expectation of reward. It does not need a pat on the head or a gold star when it goes the extra mile, for that is normal everyday behavior for the mature. Mature faith brings a self-sacrificial spirit. We do not expect thanks for merely doing our duty. We learn to do things because they are right, not because of how it makes us feel. The genuine disciple does not work with the expectation of God’s applause. We don’t expect God to say thank you -- rather, we thank Him for the opportunity to serve the King. Christ lived as a servant. He humbled Himself and gave Himself for us. We are duty bound because of what He has done for us. The church exists to glorify God, and that happens best when mature believers graciously serve as Jesus did. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day