Serving as a Servant - Martin Wiles

In the same way, when you obey me you should say, “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” Luke 17:9 NLT

The captain gave the command: “Charge for the guns.”

October 25, 1854. The Battle of Balaclava. The Crimean War. A lesser-known war seldom given much attention to in history books. With whom the blunder happened, historians disagree, but the captain gave the command for an ill-prepared English cavalry brigade to charge a Russian battery.

Men with only horses and sabers charged a fortress armed with cannons and guns. Anywhere from 600 to 670 soldiers made the charge. Only 150 to 160 of them returned, many wounded.

Poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote of the battle in his famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Praising their honor, he said, “Theirs not to make reply/ Theirs not to reason why/ Theirs but to do and die.” And in the end, he asked Britons—and all people—to “Honour the charge they made!/ Honour the Light Brigade.” After all, they had only done their duty … their service.

In response to His apostles’ request for Him to show them how to increase their faith, Jesus told them a story about servants. When servants finish performing their duties, the master doesn’t ask them to sit with him and eat. Rather, he tells them to robe and serve him. They would eat later. They did what the master expected: serve.

Serving isn’t normally the way we measure greatness. We usually determine it by how many serve us. Not in Jesus’ Kingdom. Servanthood equals greatness.

Nor does serving come naturally for me—although I’ve known some who seem to have an easier time doing it than others. I have to retrain my way of thinking. Rather than life being about me and my selfish wants, I have to intentionally focus on the needs of others.

When the palm of our hands open, we can let God’s blessings flow from us to others. And when they do, Jesus grows our faith. We give with the faith that less equals more. Although we should have less because we’ve shared, we actually have more because God opens the floodgates of heaven and pours into our cups.

A servant attitude leads us to do exactly what the Light Brigade did. Their commander gave the order to charge … to serve their country … and they did. God gives us the same command. We should do no less. We owe Him this much for all He does and has done for us.

Ask God to give you opportunities to serve as Jesus did.

Prayer: Father, give us the desire—and the opportunities—to serve with a servant attitude.

Tell us about some ways you have served. 

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Throwback Tuesday - Prayer's Power - Martin Wiles

Prayer’s Power

Series: Practical Advice for Life

A young girl phoned a local pastor. Her father was dying, and she wanted the minister to pray with him. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up by two pillows. Beside the bed was an empty chair. “I suppose you were expecting me,” the pastor commented. But the man told him no and asked who he was. After identifying himself, the pastor listened as the man told the story of the empty chair.

He had never learned to pray even though he listened to his pastor encourage it on many occasions. He finally just gave up until four years prior when a friend told him, “Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.” He suggested I place an empty chair in front of me and pretend Jesus was sitting there. And that’s what he had been doing ever since. 

Now he was bedridden, so he had placed the chair beside his bed. The pastor was moved by the story and prayed with him. Two days later, he received a call from the man’s daughter saying he had died. But the posture she found him in puzzled her. She found her father with his head laid on the chair. Read more...

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