Choose to Serve God

“Why then are we here?

Would God keep his children out of paradise a single moment longer than was necessary?

Why is the army of the living God still on the battle-field when one charge might give them the victory?

Why are his children still wandering hither and thither through a maze, when a solitary word from his lips would bring them into the centre of their hopes in heaven?

The answer is they are here that they may ‘live unto the Lord,’ and may bring others to know his love. …

We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life.

We are here as workers for him, 

and as ‘workers together with him.’

Let us see that our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest, useful, holy lives, to "the praise of the glory of his grace.”

This quote from Charles Spurgeon leads us right into the last two articles of our Busy Life Series. After we step away from the busyness and away from the excuses, we realize we have to make some choices. We choose not to stress and we choose to enjoy life. Our enjoyment of life isn’t an irresponsible pursuit of things that feel good; that’s probably what got us overly busy and stressed out in the first place. The enjoyment of life is recognizing that God is in control; He is our true source of joy, relaxation, comfort, and peace. From there, our natural responses – our next choices – are to serve Him and glorify Him.

Choose to Serve God

Serving God is going to look different for each person. He gave us all different gifts and abilities. He calls us each to different locations, different incomes, different churches, different ministries, different communities, different… you get the idea. With all of those factors, how could we expect all of our service to look the same?

Ideas for how to serve God usually look something like this – “Serve on a committee at church” or “Teach a Sunday school class” or “Donate to missionaries working overseas.” But serving God is more about a lifestyle – an attitude that permeates everything we do. (Tweet this.)

We can’t separate it from our homes, jobs, or community involvement. It can’t be another item on a checklist that we check off when completed.

I came across this list on Mary DeMuth’s Facebook page. She called it how to live missionally but I think we can also call it some good ideas on how to serve God. To make the list easier to read, I divided them into three categories…serve God directly, serve God by serving others, and serve God by serving ourselves.

Serve God Directly

Be alert to God’s hand and voice in your life.

Foster a constant awareness of the Holy Spirit’s winsome work in your life.

Have significant conversations about Jesus.

Dare to take risks for Jesus’ sake.

Respond to a prompt from the Holy Spirit.

Remember that a right heart with Jesus is far more important than looking like a Christian from the outside.

Be willing to go anywhere for the sake of God’s kingdom—even in your own neighborhood.

Serve God by Serving Others

See people as eternal.

Love your enemies.

Pray for others.

Sacrifice your selfishness for the sake of someone else.

Place people above things.

Become interruptible.

Give when it hurts or doesn’t make sense.

Grant forgiveness to those who hurt you.

Have a wallet that leaks.

Listen well.

Slow down enough to “do life” with others.

Pour into your family.

Disciple the people God places in your life.

Serve others.

Bear other people’s burdens.

Serve God by Serving Yourself

Dare to seek healing for past pain.

Entrust your reputation to Jesus instead of trying to micromanage it.

Choose not to worry when life spirals out of control.

Believe that living openhearted is better than living in bitterness.

Chase significance rather than fame, money, or possessions.

Practice gratitude.

Live outside of your comfort zone.

Forsake your constant need for control.

Learn contentment.

Realize the brevity of life.

Give up controlling people and entrust them to God.

Choose to become self-aware.

Invite others to speak truth into your life.

As you read through this list, hopefully you recognized a lot of them tie in with the previous articles in this series. This whole thing is a growth process; an important set of lessons that lead us to spiritual freedom.

Continue on with the last in this series – Choose to Glorify God. 

Live free, my friend.