Every Good Gift: A 28-Day Advent DevotionalSample

Today, we sit with Jesus as He exemplifies true service. Contrary to what the world may have us believe—that our good deeds are things we do for others in the open—Jesus calls us to a higher service. The kind of service that doesn’t boast in itself. A service that is done when no one is watching. True service is the good deeds done from a place of deep and genuine joy and love for Jesus and one another. 

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:14 NKJV)

Imagine a world where we all served. The kind of service that lays down personal ambition and comfort to be present for others. Service to the people who may never thank us. Service out of honour, out of love, out of the commitment to follow the example of Jesus. Service for the sole purpose of bringing God all the glory. No applause. No lights. No stage. No cameras. No one watching but the One that truly matters. 

Service. 

When Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law even after she lost her husband and had every cause to do so, she didn’t know for sure that anything good awaited her. She was just so committed to serving her mother-in-law that she laid down her own ambition and will, so that she could follow her no matter where the journey took them. She chose a higher service. This journey not only led her to her husband and the restoration of their family but ultimately wove her into the lineage of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

There’s no telling how far our good deeds can go. Our service can become the pathway that brings forth a miracle. Our service sets us apart in a world where everyone wants to lead and not serve. The mandate that Christ gave us is for us to lay down our lives, carry our cross, and follow Him wherever the journey may lead. (Matthew 16:24)

Tigist is no stranger to service and sacrifice. Before she became the primary caregiver to her husband, Abebaw, she always had a heart for caring for people. As a child she used to see a lot of people with disabilities begging in the streets and she became passionate about serving and helping them. 

When she was 14, she tragically lost two of her brothers to an accident and her sister became very sick. Tigist had to drop out of school to care for her sister. For Tigist, it’s been a lifetime of caring for others. 

Today, she cares for her husband Abebaw, who became paralyzed 12 years ago and has been unable to work since. “It is very hard,” she says. “But I am happy because I feel like I am serving God by taking care of my husband,” she says. Tigist describes a deep joy in her heart to be able to care for him. 

Tigist is now part of the Survival program for expecting and new mothers at her local church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, where she is receiving medical care, training, nutritional support and, most significant for Tigist, a support system of other women and parents. “It’s nice to have someone,” she says simply. 

The service that Jesus calls us to is one that wells out of a deep compassion for others and strong desire to serve them just as we know Jesus, Himself, would. This kind of service and sacrifice produce in us a deep joy that we often cannot explain, but one that is shared by both the giver and receiver. 

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

Prayer:

Precious Holy Spirit stir within me a passion for the kind of service that Jesus exemplified. Give me the desires of Your own heart and let me be Your expression to those I meet and serve. Let my good deeds bring You joy. May they bring joy to others. And my heart be filled with the joy that comes from a heart of service. Amen.