“Serve the LORD with gladness…” Psalm 100:2
I have a beloved sister and friend with a background in emergency room nursing who when she left behind her emergency room job due to a medical diagnosis scrubbed people’s toilets and donated the money to my ministry. She didn’t have an ounce of pride, not an iota of complaining nor resistance, that I heard anyway. She considered it an honor and privilege to scrub toilets for Jesus, as she described it. This friend lives in the area that is my first stop in being full time on the road for the Lord and ministry, and two of her latest ventures as she scoots around on a scooter due to a broken foot are making me homemade granola because she knows I love it and am staying in a hotel. And doing not only my laundry, but the dogs’ laundry. Stinky, smelly, filthy, hairy laundry. In her own washer and dryer. Raising herself carefully in the air off her scooter, her broken foot held in the air, to get the laundry in the dryer. Taking the dog-urine-smelly towels and everything else onto her laundry room floor, and spending God knows how much time doing load after load to take the load off of me as my time becomes increasingly filled with streets ministry and writing, publishing, and distributing Gospel tracts, devotionals, and books.
There are two lessons in this. First, about servanthood. See, when we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, believing He died and rose again to be the atonement for our sins so we can be given God’s forgiveness and eternal life with Him rather than forever apart from Him in perpetual torment in hell and the lake of fire, we become His. He purchased us with His shed blood. We become God’s children. And Christ’s servants. Dying to self and living for Him, and with Him, forever. The trouble is we still have our sin nature. War breaks out between our born again self, born anew in Christ, with a clean slate and fresh beginning, and our old nature, our selfish ungodly flesh. When we yield to God, we learn to walk in His ways. We humble ourselves. We act as His servants. With gladness. No matter what He gives us to do. We are to be humble joyful servants. But are we?
Second, some of us are caught up in doing “big things” for God. A servant does whatever He or she is given, knowing it all matters to the master regardless the size. The “little things” my friend humbly does for me are actually for God, and her joyful servant’s heart and actions help enable me to be more available to fulfill what He has called me to do. We are one Body of Christ, all to work together. As co-laborers. Co-servants. All with the highest purpose to love and worship God forever and to help build and encourage His Kingdom of followers. With gladness in our hearts. Even with the “little things.” Are we?