“…For even Christ did not please himself….” –Romans 15:3
I had a dream. In the dream, my Grandma was not feeling well. I asked her if I could get her something to eat. She said she would love some pancakes. The scene changed and I was in a fast food place purchasing little chicken biscuits. I put my head out the door of the place and shouted to my grandma if she wanted two or just one of the biscuits since they were only $1.95. Then I came to myself in the dream on the dirty, gravel floor of the restaurant, face down. I couldn’t find my grandmother.
I sensed the dream was important so I asked God what it was that He was showing me. God said one word- SERVE. The issue is His people generously offer to serve Him. They even ask Him what they could do for Him. But they never listen to His needs. They allow their own desires to dictate what they do. They allow the cost of things and money to determine what they do, convincing themselves that what they are doing is better.
God is not pleased.
He is God. We are to serve Him as He dictates, obey His commands, not Him accepting ours.
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul….” –Deuteronomy 10:12 NIV
This word serve is the Hebrew ‘abad (a-vad), which translates as servants or slaves laboring to serve. It has the idea of worshipping God.
Jesus in response to the negativity of the Pharisees stated emphatically, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me” John 8:28, and, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:34.
He did not do His own thing, what His flesh demanded. He did what He saw and heard of His Father. Since He is our example, that we should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21), then it behooves us to find out what God wants of us, and deny our flesh the pleasure of sinning, and do what God asks us to.
God gave His proof that He was worthy of our total allegiance–body, soul and spirit when He sacrificed Himself for us.
It pleased Him to bruise Jesus for us! (Isaiah 53:10). How much more does He need to do! On the cross, they demanded, “Save yourself and come down from the cross” (Mark 15:30). He could have easily gotten off the cross. But He chose His Father’s way. In the garden before the cross, He prayed three times for a different way (Mark 14:32-41). He was fully God but also fully man, so that He experienced the same passions of doubt and fear that we do. But He chose to SERVE. By staying on the cross, by choosing SERVING over His feeling, He provided THE ONLY WAY for even His accusers to be saved.
The season is urgent.
Our homes, our children, our communities, our country, depend on our obedience to God, on serving Him as He dictates.
In the book of Numbers 14, God told the people through Moses to get up and go take the land He had given them. They refused, giving in to fear, accusations, whining, etc. Finally, they decided to do it, their way, instead of God’s way (verses 40-45). The results were unpleasant.
Doing it our way is no longer an option. We need to get up from the gravel we’ve found ourselves in, turn our faces to our God, cry out to Him for pardon, and seek His instructions to do it His way, despite the cost. We need to seek Him while we can still find Him, while we can still hear His Spirit (Isaiah 55:6)
May we desire to do the will of the One who sent us, do it as He dictates. SERVE Him while we still have time. Then, perhaps, He’ll forgive us and our land will be healed.