Serve With Gladness
In Africa, I will never forget watching the lady with the broken leg healed walk way with her crutches in hand. Thank you for letting me see that.
That delicious passage: Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
This is one of the very many promises of God. God's promises are realities...like cause and effect, action and consequence. If you do this, I (God) will do this.
If I go to God, He will give me rest.
If I take his yoke upon me and learn from him, he will give rest for your soul.
Rest for my soul. I know about a weary soul.
So my part is to go to God, take his yoke and learn from him. What does it mean to take his yoke? Since I don't know much about yoking cattle or whatever, I can think of a three-legged race. I can only move as quickly as my partner. We have to move together, in sync, in the same direction, with the same rhythm, even. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
So in this promise, Jesus doesn't promise that he will make my problems disappear. He promises rest and an easy yoke. When I join with him, I won't be burdened with heaviness. He doesn't have heavy burdens. I do. What he'll do is take the strain of my burdens on himself. Awesome.
I should also learn from him. That's what I'm doing now.
"Although He sometimes chooses to prevent or minimize pain in our lives, Jesus never promises to keep us from suffering. He does promise to walk with us through even the most awful situations, giving us genuine soul-rest."
Even when we recognize that pain & suffering are universal, it doesn't really make anything easier. One of my friend is stressing hard over his thinning hair. I try to comfort him by saying, "Almost all the men I know have thin hair...or are bald! It's so common!" And he tells me that doesn't make him feel better about his loss. I totally understand.
"In order to find out what God has for us in our suffering, we need to walk with Him through our pain..."
Maybe God sometimes allows pain to come at my so I'll be more compelled to draw near to him.
What's that verse...draw near to God and he will draw near to you...looking it up...
James 4:7-10
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
What are the true motivations that drive me?
attention. affection. affirmation. love. an embrace. romance.
I am not pleased when I read my list of motivators. I don't however, know the motivators that would glorify God...except the motivation of just that: glorifying God.
Psalm 51:10-12
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me."
How do my responses to suffering expose how I feel about God?
I've been struggling with the notion that I don't trust God for a while now. But I've been telling him out loud that I do. And even naming the specific things that I trust him with. And asking him to help me trust him. Help me trust you with my heart, with my loneliness, with my future, with my emotions, with my health, with my finances.
Do I really trust Him?
Do I really believe He has my best interest at heart?
I want to believe it. I do. Of course, I know he does, but does my level of trust in him reflect that?
I felt a taste of freedom tonight when I was preparing for music practice (for which no one showed up!). The Holy Spirit met me there tonight and released me from worry and from strain and stress. I felt relaxed. I felt good for the first time in weeks...months, really. I was walking around the church singing that old hymn "Serve The Lord With Gladness"
Serve Him with gladness, enter His courts with song
To our creator true praises belong
Great is His mercy, wonderful is His name
We gladly serve Him, His great love proclaim
Serve the Lord with gladness in our works and ways
Come before His presence with our songs of praise
Unto Him our Maker we would pledge anew
Life's supreme devotion to service true.
Serve the Lord with gladness, thankful all the while
For his tender mercies, for His loving smile
Blessed truth enduring, always just the same
We will serve with gladness and praise His name
Serve the Lord with gladness, this shall be our theme
As we walk together in His love supreme
Listening, ever listening for the still small voice
His sweet will so precious will be our choice.
I will live a life of service. I've known this since I was a child. And I've made the glad commitment to do so. I get so bogged down in my idea of the obligation of it all that I forget to serve the Lord with gladness! Enter his courts with song! To my Creator, true praises belong! Great is His mercy & wonderful is His name! I gladly serve him; His great love proclaim. I will not trade anything this world has to offer - relationship or possession - for my station at the foot of the cross. I've come close recently and more than once. But God's love is stubborn and persistent. Thank you, Jesus. Keep me near the cross. May I never stray so far that I cannot see what flowed down for me.
I'm so glad to be in Your service, Lord. Thank you for using me all these years...even in ways I don't have a clue of. I remain surrendered for your use however you want.
That delicious passage: Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
This is one of the very many promises of God. God's promises are realities...like cause and effect, action and consequence. If you do this, I (God) will do this.
If I go to God, He will give me rest.
If I take his yoke upon me and learn from him, he will give rest for your soul.
Rest for my soul. I know about a weary soul.
So my part is to go to God, take his yoke and learn from him. What does it mean to take his yoke? Since I don't know much about yoking cattle or whatever, I can think of a three-legged race. I can only move as quickly as my partner. We have to move together, in sync, in the same direction, with the same rhythm, even. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
So in this promise, Jesus doesn't promise that he will make my problems disappear. He promises rest and an easy yoke. When I join with him, I won't be burdened with heaviness. He doesn't have heavy burdens. I do. What he'll do is take the strain of my burdens on himself. Awesome.
I should also learn from him. That's what I'm doing now.
"Although He sometimes chooses to prevent or minimize pain in our lives, Jesus never promises to keep us from suffering. He does promise to walk with us through even the most awful situations, giving us genuine soul-rest."
Even when we recognize that pain & suffering are universal, it doesn't really make anything easier. One of my friend is stressing hard over his thinning hair. I try to comfort him by saying, "Almost all the men I know have thin hair...or are bald! It's so common!" And he tells me that doesn't make him feel better about his loss. I totally understand.
"In order to find out what God has for us in our suffering, we need to walk with Him through our pain..."
Maybe God sometimes allows pain to come at my so I'll be more compelled to draw near to him.
What's that verse...draw near to God and he will draw near to you...looking it up...
James 4:7-10
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
What are the true motivations that drive me?
attention. affection. affirmation. love. an embrace. romance.
I am not pleased when I read my list of motivators. I don't however, know the motivators that would glorify God...except the motivation of just that: glorifying God.
Psalm 51:10-12
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me."
How do my responses to suffering expose how I feel about God?
I've been struggling with the notion that I don't trust God for a while now. But I've been telling him out loud that I do. And even naming the specific things that I trust him with. And asking him to help me trust him. Help me trust you with my heart, with my loneliness, with my future, with my emotions, with my health, with my finances.
Do I really trust Him?
Do I really believe He has my best interest at heart?
I want to believe it. I do. Of course, I know he does, but does my level of trust in him reflect that?
I felt a taste of freedom tonight when I was preparing for music practice (for which no one showed up!). The Holy Spirit met me there tonight and released me from worry and from strain and stress. I felt relaxed. I felt good for the first time in weeks...months, really. I was walking around the church singing that old hymn "Serve The Lord With Gladness"
Serve Him with gladness, enter His courts with song
To our creator true praises belong
Great is His mercy, wonderful is His name
We gladly serve Him, His great love proclaim
Serve the Lord with gladness in our works and ways
Come before His presence with our songs of praise
Unto Him our Maker we would pledge anew
Life's supreme devotion to service true.
Serve the Lord with gladness, thankful all the while
For his tender mercies, for His loving smile
Blessed truth enduring, always just the same
We will serve with gladness and praise His name
Serve the Lord with gladness, this shall be our theme
As we walk together in His love supreme
Listening, ever listening for the still small voice
His sweet will so precious will be our choice.
I will live a life of service. I've known this since I was a child. And I've made the glad commitment to do so. I get so bogged down in my idea of the obligation of it all that I forget to serve the Lord with gladness! Enter his courts with song! To my Creator, true praises belong! Great is His mercy & wonderful is His name! I gladly serve him; His great love proclaim. I will not trade anything this world has to offer - relationship or possession - for my station at the foot of the cross. I've come close recently and more than once. But God's love is stubborn and persistent. Thank you, Jesus. Keep me near the cross. May I never stray so far that I cannot see what flowed down for me.
I'm so glad to be in Your service, Lord. Thank you for using me all these years...even in ways I don't have a clue of. I remain surrendered for your use however you want.
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