SERVICE-GOD DRIVEN
I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I
ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.
Hudson Taylor
So, let us
work hard but never forget that it is not us but the grace of God which is with
us (1 Cor. 15:10). Let us obey now, as always, but never forget that it is God
who works in us both the will and the deed (Phil. 2:13). Let us spread the
gospel far and wide and spend ourselves for the sake of the elect but never
venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought in us (Rom. 15:18).
In all our serving may God be the giver, and may God get the glory.
Brothers,
We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem Baptist Church 2002, p. 44.
Trying
to work for God without worshipping God results in joyless legalism. Work minus worship magnifies your
will power not God’s worth. If you try to do things for God without delighting
in God you bring dishonor upon God. Serving God without savoring God is
lifeless and unreal.
John Piper
To
concentrate on service and activity for God may often actively thwart our
attaining of the true goal, God Himself. At first sight it seems heroic to
fling our lives away in the service of God and of our fellows. We feel it is
bound to mean more to Him than our experience of Him. Service seems so
unselfish, whereas concentrating on our walk with God seems selfish and
self-centered. But it is the very reverse. The things that God is most
concerned about are our coldness of heart towards Himself
and our proud, unbroken natures. Christian service of itself can, and so often
does, leave our self-centered nature untouched… With those things hidden in our
hearts, we have only to work alongside others, and find resentment, hardness,
criticism, jealousy, and frustration issuing from our hearts. We think we are
working for God, but the test of how little of our service for Him is revealed
by our resentment or self-pity… We need to leave our lusting for ever-larger
spheres of Christian service and concentrate on seeing God for ourselves and
finding the deep answer for life in Him.
Roy Hession
We Would
See Jesus, Christian Literature Crusade, 1961, p. 15.
Worship
empowers serving; serving expresses worship. Godliness requires a disciplined
balance between the two.
Those who can maintain service without regular personal and corporate worship
are serving in the flesh. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been serving that
way or how well others think they serve, they are not striving according to God’s
power, as Paul did, but their own… At the same time, one measure of the
authenticity of worship (again, both personal and corporate) is whether it
results in a desire to serve… Therefore, we must maintain that to be Godly, we
should discipline ourselves for both worship and service. To engage in one
without the other is, in reality, to experience neither.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual
Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 128, Used by permission of
NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
So
many of us think about it the other way around. We think of church in terms of our
serving God and receiving from others. But this is backwards. Sacrificial
service in the church doesn’t start with serving. It starts with being served
by God. Then as we are satisfied in Him and who He’s revealed Himself to be in
His crucified Son, we gladly overflow in service of others.
David
Mathis
Served by God, Serving Man, Tabletalk,
March, 2009, p. 68. Used by Permission.
The
church that seeks to give to God and receive from others will suffocate faith
and smother love. But if Jesus’ gospel takes root, we will gladly come to God
to feast and drink. Then with our hands full and our thirst being quenched, we
will most gladly do good to others, especially the
church – those who are of the household of faith (2 Cor. 12:15; Gal. 6:10).
David
Mathis
Served by God, Serving Man, Tabletalk,
March, 2009, p. 69. Used by Permission.
If
God is my portion, if God is the true source of my joy, and if it is God who
will fulfill me, then I am free to be a companion instead of a consumer. That
is, because of what I receive from God I can give to another person instead of
always taking; I can minister rather than manipulate because of the fulfillment
I get from God.
Richard D. Phillips
and Sharon L. Phillips
Holding
Hands and Holding Hearts, P&R, 2006, p. 58. Used by Permission.
Trying to do
the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and
tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the
ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.
Corrie
ten Boom
It is
possible to be so active in the service of Christ as
to forget to love Him.
P.T. Forsyth
True saints
do what they do because they are drawn by love. True Christians find that the
love of God in Christ is so attractive, so beautiful, that they cannot help
wanting to serve Him. There is a splendor, a beauty, about God and His ways
that lures humans beings to Him.
Gerald McDermott
Taken from Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality by Gerald R.
McDermott, p. 114. Copyright 1995, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship/USA. Used with permission of the Intervarsity Press, P.O. Box
1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.
Nothing is of
greater importance than loving God! If we fail to take this seriously, we may
find at the end of our lives that all of our works counted for nothing…
[However] He wants us to be before we do. Love first!
Kent Hughes
John: That You May Believe, Crossway, 1999,
p. 474.
We all know
people, even unbelievers, who seem to be natural servants. They are always
serving others one way or another. But God does not get the glory; they do. It
is their reputation that is enhanced. But when we, natural servants or
not, serve in dependence upon the grace of God with the strength He supplies,
God is glorified.
Jerry Bridges
The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p.
82.
The idea of
staying close to one’s “first love” (Revelation 2:5) is referring to one’s
devotion, not emotion. It is saying, “Let Christ be
preeminent once again; do not let service take His place”… If we allow working
for the Lord to take the place of walking with Him, there will be consequences…
When you think about it, ministry really isn’t what we do for the Lord. It is
what He does through us as we walk with Him.
Eddie Rasnake
The Book of Ephesians, AMG Publishers, 2003,
p. 9.
Don’t ever
forget that you cannot do what God has called you to do. You cannot parent that
child, love that husband, care for that elderly parent, submit to that boss,
teach that Sunday school class, or lead that small-group Bible study. God
specializes in the impossible, so that when the victory is won and the task is
complete, we cannot take any credit. Others know we didn’t do it, and we know
we didn’t do it. We must always remember that we can only live the Christian
life and serve God through the power of His Holy Spirit. As soon as we think we
can handle it on our own, we become useless to Him. We have to be willing to
get out of the way, let God take over, and let Him overshadow us.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Biblical Womanhood in the Home, Crossway,
2002, p. 70.
Don’t assume
you have to be extraordinary to be used by God. You don’t have to have
exceptional gifts, talents, abilities, or connections. God specializes in using
ordinary people whose limitations and weaknesses make them ideal showcases for
His greatness and glory (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Biblical Womanhood in the Home, Crossway,
2002, p. 67.
Till men have
faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins.
Thomas Brooks
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 102.
When…people learn
to rely not on their own power and wisdom, but to depend on God, there is no limit
to their usefulness in God’s service.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 145.
We’re here to
be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately
make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert
should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker… The
work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.
A.W. Tozer
We have
become so engrossed in the work of the Lord that we have forgotten the Lord of
the work.
A.W. Tozer
God doesn’t
call the equipped, He equips the called.
Author Unknown
If we give
God service it must be because He gives us grace. We work for Him
because He works in us.
C.H.
Spurgeon
The Treasury of David, Commentary for Psalm
119:17.
This does not
mean that I cannot desire to be blessed by my service to God. In fact, God
promises to bless our obedience according to His loving purposes, and in some
measure He uses these blessings to encourage us to honor His standards. The
point is not that His blessings should never motivate us at all, but they
cannot be the driving force of our service. His blessings are the oil that
helps the machinery of obedience operate, but love for
God and desire for His glory are the pistons and wheels.
Bryan Chapell
Holiness by Grace, Crossway, 2001, p. 31.