As I have prepared to come back over to Swaziland to serve in the role that God has called me to here, I am caught in a tough place, knowing the standards of serving that God lays out in the Bible, but then realizing how often I fall short of those standards & serve while my heart is in the wrong place. My tendency is to turn to the Biblical exhortations to serve God with all of my heart or to read biographies of people who seemed to have God-honoring service down as a natural way of life...but many times those only leave me feeling guilty, ill-equipped, and wrongly motivated. In this season, God has led me to examine my heart towards service in a different way...to identify the temptations I face in serving that keep me from serving in the way He designed me to serve & has equipped me to serve by the power of His Holy Spirit.
Temptation #1: I am tempted to serve for others to see me & to make my name great...enough said.
Temptation #2: I am tempted to serve as an experience...thinking through the next photograph or blog post, thinking about stories I can tell one day in the future.
Temptation #3: I am tempted to serve as a means to an end...wanting people to like me more, thinking I can earn God's approval, etc.
Temptation #4: I am tempted to serve out of my own strength...controlling the plans, not relying on the Holy Spirit's power or timing, serving out of competency instead of dependency.
Temptation #5: I am tempted to serve out of obligation or duty, merely going through the motions...unfortunately looking back at the end of the day & realizing I missed the point of it all, even if I can check the boxes on my to do list.
Temptation #6: I am tempted to serve based on need...instead of based on a call to serve a specific need or a call to use my gifting, leading me to rob others of their opportunity to serve & miss out on what God is calling me to.
God has freed me to serve Him & equipped me to serve Him & empowered me to serve Him. To not be overwhelmed by all of the needs around me, but to trust that He will lead my hands to serve faithfully as I keep my eyes and heart focused on Him.
Great blog Erica! Really good things for all of us who serve (especially full time) to think about.
ReplyDeleteErica,
ReplyDeleteYou should write a book on this. It is needed. People preparing to serve in any capacity - but especially cross culturally in a developing country - have some if not all the internal motivations you've listed. We each need to take a hard honest look at ourselves and come to terms with our motivations. And then lay them down at the feet of Jesus and seek the sanctification we need to serve in purity and humility as much as humanly possible. So yes - seriously - if you can't write a book write a paper on each of these issues. I would use it to help prepare future missionaries. And I would use it to examine myself!