How to Exercise a Humble FaithShembull

The Power to Serve

God created human beings in His own image. Each of us has been granted a unique set of passions, gifts, and abilities. We can feel it in the recesses of our soul.

We can also sense that we are meant to use these gifts for something important. We long for greatness—a capacity to do good. Like superheroes in the movies, we have talent that’s eager and ready for action.

The temptation is to use this power for selfish gain. As Uncle Ben tells Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The only difference between a supervillain and a superhero is where they direct their powers—to promote themselves or to serve others.

Villains in the movies use their powers of intellect, skill, and money to build devices and schemes that serve their own lust for power. They try to control and make others serve them. When their superpowers are used in this manner, we can foretell that there will be pain, destruction, and death.

Heroes, on the other hand, see their power as a responsibility to serve others. It equips them to build up the community, bringing with it common good, hope, and life. No matter how complicated the situation becomes, their heart’s desire to use their power for good drives them to defy any problem.

Throughout the Bible, we see God’s call for humanity to serve one another, leaving aside all pride or position, to seek to edify, build, and sustain the lives of those around us. During His time on earth, Jesus Christ did this when He went forward to the cross to complete the Father’s work, notwithstanding the end that awaited Him.

The church is the body of Christ, called to bear one another’s burdens. The message is clear: Our gifts are to help others, not to exalt ourselves.

When we serve others, we must be humble and see them as more important than ourselves. Our unique passions and abilities are vehicles of tremendous power when we put them at God’s disposal. We can see His love multiply and become a pathway that may lead others to Jesus. God has given us the awesome responsibility of choosing how to use our gifts.

Lord, I thank You for the talents, gifts, and abilities You have given me. Let me spot the opportunity to use them for good. Let me be a sign of Your greatness and love to others by serving them.