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

When we are serving others, we are serving God and He should receive all the glory. Being a servant leader means putting the interests of others above your own. You've probably seen some variation of these words before, but ask yourself the following questions: Do you put others before yourself in the workplace, among your friends or in your ministry or school setting? Lastly, it may alwaysbe easy, but as a person of faith, God calls upon you to serve others and bring his light to them. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices Gos is pleased. "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another" Galatians 5:13-15 (NKJV)!

God wants us to use our unique role in the body of Christ to glorify Him. So, if God made us an amazing singers, sing for Him. If our talent are a little less conventional, find a way to translate that into a job or volunteer work for a God-honoring a company or ministry. Use your God-given abilities to reach those who don’t know Him, and give Him the credit for your talents. However, we are called to be servants like Jesus, being a Jesus-style servant means to look to our Lord as our guide, our example and our strength; remembering to take the focus off of our needs and put others first. Jesus’ life was so full of beautiful examples of this: He healed the sick, washed the feet of his friends, took time out of his ministry to listen and hold children—and then He died on a cross for the sins of the world. "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" Matthew 20:26-28 (NKJV).

Being a Jesus-style servant is not easy, having a servant’s heart means to not only put other’s needs ahead of our own, but to serve with the right motivation, which is to put God’s will first. Rewards, recognition or even gratitude cannot be the motivation to live out true servanthood the way Jesus did. Small acts can have huge impacts! How do you describe someone with a servant's heart? Jesus gives us two commandments in Matthew 22. Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV). And when we steward our talents to honor Him and to bless others, we’re doing just that.

The Creator implanted an innated sense of servanthoond in every cell of the human body. Although, each cell of the body shares a common DNA, each one serves a specific purpose of the good of the entire body. Some cells are grouped together where they combine their talents to serve the body with specialized function as an organ (such as the liver, the eye, the heart and the brain). On a larger scale, every body organ is dependent on the "selfless service" of the other organs and cells, without it life will cease. However, the Body of Christ operates with the same interdependence.

Greatness is more elusive than ever before, the competition was quite limited. If you wanted to be the best doctor, the best athlete, the best hair cutter in town, you had to compete with a very limited competitors or people. John the Baptist was a great man. Yet Jesus turned to his followers and said: “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not agreater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” Luke 7:28 (NKJV). Of all the people who had lived up to the time of John the Baptist, no one had fulfilled God’s purpose for man better than John did. And yet Jesus said that the most insignificant person who follows him can live a life even greater than what John the Baptist lived.