January 11, 2018 (Thursday)
God has a rich existence within Himself: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But, according to the Bible, after creating the universe, he felt the need for a being with whom he could communicate, so he made human beings in His own image. At first, the fellowship was grand as God and man walked together in the beautiful garden, but when God came to the garden for their daily walk one day, the man was nowhere to be found. He was hiding from God. Sin had entered and the man could no longer have fellowship with his creator. The rest of the Bible is the story of how God continued working to restore that fellowship through many means, including human beings who were part of God’s plan.
Not all potential servants of the Lord were willing to serve. It goes without saying that Adam and Eve went their own way, away from God. But others followed. When God called Moses, he made many excuses for not serving, and finally said, “get someone else.” When God called Jonah, he fled God’s presence (or so he thought) and ran away from God.
When God called Samuel, however, he answered, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” And when Isaiah heard God’s call, he replied, “Here am I. Send me.”
We all know that specific individuals performed special tasks and ministries that the Lord required of them. Hebrews11 gives us a list of many of them. We know, too, that the Holy Spirit has given His gifts of service to members of Christ’s body, assigning them particular skills, abilities and talents suited to their place in God’s plan.
In a general sense, however, every Christian is called to serve the Lord. Seldom if ever is a person called to serve by means of a miraculous experience like Paul’s on the road to Damascus. He was special, and so was his calling. The Christ who saved him and assigned him to minister to Gentiles also saved us and calls us to become His witnesses. Every one of us who knows the Lord as his/her Savior has been included in the calling of Christ to serve Him: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NIV).
Every one of us who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord should continually be asking, “Lord what will you have me to do?” I think the Lord has something in mind for each of us, for there are innumerable ways in which we can serve the Lord. I see it happening all the time in the lives of God’s people as they exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in their daily lives and as they seek the power of the Spirit in their deeds of Christian service and human kindness. Our prayer should be that of the hymn, “Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”