God Serves Us First - Encouragement Café - November 8

God Serves Us First
 By Andrea Hine

[God is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  Acts 17:25 ESV

Don’t be conformed, be transformed – this begins when we give our life to Christ.  We can’t say, “This is just how I am,” “My parents didn’t teach me,” “This is too hard for me,” or “I am never going to get this.”  There really are no excuses, although we make excuses for our actions, words, behaviors, etc.  

In order to not conform to this world, we not only have to change how we think, but we have to change what/who we value.  We must place God at the top of our list and make Him our priority.  Only when we read God’s Word and abide in Him can we be changed.  

When I accepted Christ, the Holy Spirit came to live in my heart.  He has quite a bit of cleaning up to do in there… after all I have lived apart from God for more than half my life.  He is changing how I see, and relate with, others.  He is changing how I see myself and He tells me who I am… in Him.  Without Jesus, I am lost… a sheep wandering around thirsty and hungry… looking for something that no one else is able to provide… except for my Shepherd who sought and bought me with His redeeming blood.

God’s Word is about change.  Not conforming but being transformed is a process, a transition that brings us to be more like Christ.  We are being given a new identity and a new creation is being made.  We were created to worship God, we were created for His pleasure and we were created to be in a relationship with Him.

All of life is an act of worship and we glorify God by showing how satisfied we are in Him.  The presenting of our bodies to God, is a living and holy sacrifice.  Using our bodies to do the acceptable will of God explains the offering of our bodies to God as acceptable sacrifices.  

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 ESV

“God serves us by giving life and breath and everything about himself that goes to the deepest recesses of our hearts.  We worship first and foremost by thirsting and hungering after God above all things.  And that means that we worship first and foremost by being served by God.  It is a worship service, because the service starts with God's serving us what we so desperately need, namely, himself.”  John Piper

As Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” John 17:17 ESV.  We must humble ourselves each day knowing we are unable to learn without Him.  We have God’s power within us to control our thoughts.  We can endure anything with God’s power and strength.  We need to guard our hearts because we are what we think.  We need to learn to control our emotions better and listen to God, not the enemy.  We need to learn to control our words that come out of our mouths.  We need to praise God for our trials and our weaknesses; in them we are made strong in Him and God transforms us more with each one.

Heavenly Father, we ask You to teach us Your Word so that our minds will be renewed, so we will be transformed, so others will see You through us.  We are impatient and we get discouraged when we don’t see ourselves changing as much as we think we ought to be.  Only You know what pace we can endure and we are aware that our times are in Your hands.  We love You and we want to do Your will.  We pray in Christ’s Name, Amen.

© 2019 by Andrea Hine.  All rights reserved.

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