Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace.

1 Peter 4:10 (NCB)

According to the Apostle Peter, God has already equipped us in Christ to serve others. We just need to look for the opportunity to use our gifts to bless people and do them good. Whatever we do, let us do it with humility and sincerity. God is faithful and will never forget our labour of love.

Jesus is our perfect example of servanthood.

He came to serve and not to be served.

We are to serve from a place of sonship and oneness with Christ. Then everything we do or say is empowered by love and expressed by faith. We give as we receive.

Serving well has nothing to do with our personality types. At its deepest root, it flows from an intimacy and love for God. This is because all ministry is God-centred. We don’t serve for the validation of others, but for the sheer joy of worshipping our Father. But if we don’t know what’s in our Father’s heart, we can’t serve with purpose. We will act like hired hands without any genuine love or care for the people God has given us to serve.

Sometimes we avoid serving because we don’t want people to see our fears and flaws. While we want to protect ourselves from criticism and unfair judgement, it also means we remain unhealed and broken.

Serving makes us stronger and better people.

The more we serve God and others around us, the more we learn about ourselves. Sometimes we don’t know how much we’ve been weighed down by fear, rejection, and shame until we choose to serve. God allows these sinful vulnerabilities to reveal themselves in order to heal us and restore us. God does so because He wants us to reflect His glory when we serve. With His wholeness in us, we will hold nothing back as we give of our time, energy, and resources.