Philippians: 14 Days of Hope and EncouragementSample

Each year at my church, the pastors hold a volunteer appreciation dinner. It’s a chance for them to thank everyone who has served. But there’s a problem. Every year, those people who are supposed to sit back and relax? They keep trying to help set up and clean up when they’re supposed to let someone else do the work on their behalf for an evening.

Service is in their hearts. People who know Jesus tend to act like Jesus.

Jesus literally had everything. He was in heaven with all of the power and glory. He had every right to stay where He was, receiving the worship and service His very nature demanded.

But He didn’t. Jesus laid down every right, and He came to earth to serve us. The Christ, the Holy, the All-Powerful said, “All that I’m owed? All that I have a right to? I’m giving it up. For you.”

Out of love for us, He came here as the weakest of the weak. He arrived as a baby born into the lowliest of families. He lived in service to others, because love drove Him to set aside everything He was due so that we could know Him, find forgiveness in Him, and be with Him for eternity.

Ultimately, He died a gruesome death that was as far from His throne in heaven as He could possibly get.

That’s what love does. When we love Jesus, love flows from Him, through us, then out to others. We stop demanding our rights and our time and our stuff, and we start to hand those things to others. We humbly serve out of love for the Jesus who laid down everything for us.

Romans 15:3 tells us that Christ didn’t come here to please Himself. When we live like Jesus, we spend our time looking for ways to serve others, not for ways that others can serve us. How amazing and unbelievable that the Creator of all things set aside everything so that He could take care of us!

~Jodie Bailey

Novelist and Faith Over Fear podcast host