A Servant's Heart Is God's Secret to Greatness - Part Six

Servanthood is A Heart Attitude, Not An Aptitude: There are adjustments to be made on the way to becoming a servant. However, these adjustments are of the "attitude" variety and are necessary to enable us to properly navigate our way through the changing terrain of the world around us. Yes, change is a fact of life, but it requires that we shave the insight or vision to perceive our need for an adjustment.

Servanthood is our highest calling that moves us toward our conviction, which convinces us to do things and have a logical outflow which comes with commitment. Servant is a heart attitude, not some occupational aptitude like flying a plance. It is difficult at best to do something when your heart just isn't in it, in a way, it is even worse when you have to work with someone whose heart isnt' in the work. Servanthood is all about heart attitude, unless your heart is changed, captured or broken by an encounter with God, then you will find it impossible to serve others according to God's will. Servanthood isn't about good works alone, yet, true servanthood is an essential part of our discipleship under Christ. It is all about allowing God to change our hearts for service to His Kingdom. "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ"Colossians 3:23-24 (NKJV). If we are not extremely careful and constantly check our motives, we can fool even ourselves. We can be engaged in all kinds of service while actually serving our own neurotic needs, which creates desires for acceptance or feelings of significance or for control or for praise, position, power, and prestige.

In seeking to develop a servant’s heart, Christians naturally face the opposing forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil, all of which are directed toward promoting selfish concerns and especially the pursuit of significance. Even when engaged in religious or humanitarian works, selfish pursuits can so easily come to the surface. However there are undoubtedly two fundamental concerns that servants should be mindful when serving others: (1) the servant's own neurotic need for approval or for significance and (2) the servant's need to identify and work toward serving the real needs of others and not their neurotic wants. 1) People too often serve others from their own neurotic need for approval or for significance. The Christian community generally understands they are to live as servants, but our preoccupation with our own significance robs us of the ability to serve. Part of the problem is that in our society today such a selfish pursuit is no longer seen as a neurosis or as a disorder. In fact, it is not only seen as natural, but it is presented as a legitimate need and something everyone should pursue. It is more important today that children feel good about themselves than learn their ABCs. But the problem is that the world is searching for significance in all the wrong places and by all the wrong means. A search for significance as it is promoted by the world naturally produces the opposite of servanthood. It produces extreme selfishness and aberrant behavior. People today often wear themselves out, overtly demonstrating the Christian model while inwardly they are actually serving in order to feel better about themselves or to gain position, praise, acceptance, etc. Again, such behavior stems from the worldly model that operates by a different world viewpoint. As a result, many people serve in various capacities in the church from a host of false agendas. “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let usprophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness" Romans 12:1–8 (NKJV).

We can serve to feel important rather than because we love people and the Lord and because we are resting in who we are in Christ, complete in Him. 2) The servant's need to identify and work toward serving the real needs of others and not their neurotic wants. We live in a self-centered society that wants comfort and happiness. It is also a society that wants to be served by others. We might compare the many who followed Christ. There were curious followers and even convinced followers, but some were following from the wrong motives: some followed for political reasons thinking Jesus would remove the yoke of Rome. Regardless, the Lord regularly challenged these impure motives. This false mentality manifests itself in the church in a number of ways. For instance, consider the reason many, if not most churches today, hire a pastor or a pastoral staff. The biblical reason, of course, should be to be equipped for ministry. The leadership of the church has been given the mandate to equip the saints for the work of ministry: servant living. Leaders and disciples alike must recognize that having the wrong goal, by making the flock happy and comfortable ultimately leads to misery; not true happiness. Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ-like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness. I want to be happy, but the paradoxical truth is that I will never be happy if I am concerned primarily with becoming happy. The overriding goal must be in every circumstance to respond biblically, to put the Lord first, to seek to behave as he would want me to. The wonderful truth is that as we devote all our energies to the task of becoming what Christ wants us to be, He fills us with joy unspeakable and a peace far surpassing what the world offers. “Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” Psalms 100:2–4 (NKJV).