Thought for Friday, 9 September

Luke 22:27

For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

 Yesterday saw the end of an era

with the death of Queen Elizabeth ll. The queen was the very embodiment of service having served this country unstintingly for 70 years. What it cost her in her private life none of us will ever know because she carried out each engagement with dignity and gentility. In serving the country she was serving God in the role He marked for her.

Martin Luther said, "The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in a church and by the works done therein...The whole world could abound with the services to the Lord…not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field."

We are all called to serve God, in every aspect of life. The greatest servant of all was, of course, Jesus Christ. He gave up His home in heaven to serve God here on earth, by His teaching and miracles among those He had daily contact with.

Jesus is the Son of Almighty God but He made Himself servant of all so that God would be glorified by His life and service. In bearing our sins on the Roman cross Jesus paid the ultimate price as the human in Him gave his life so that we could be granted eternal life.

We are told in Romans 10:9 how to claim this eternal life…

if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

However, by ‘declaring and believing’ we should be all the more willing to serve Him who gave so great a gift. There are so many ways to serve, every single thing we do for somebody else is a service to our God and our Saviour. Are we ‘good and faithful servants’, or is there room for improvement? Service is not a necessity for eternal life but it is a privilege to be allowed to serve our God in any way we can.

 

Prayer

Father in Heaven, we thank You for the life and service of Your servant Elizabeth ll. May she know eternal peace. Comfort and strengthen her family. Bless King Charles lll with health to serve as his mother did. Father may we also serve You where we see a need. We know that our ability to serve as You deserve comes from the example of Your Son Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen