Day Thirteen: Serving One Another
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ –Acts 20:35
Paul’s philosophy of ministry—given to him by Jesus—was that there is more joy when our focus is on serving others instead of being served. Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages has helped many couples understand how they give love and how they receive love. It’s very helpful. The only problem is that we are sinners who have a tendency to hijack good things and try to make them serve our fleshly desires. What can so often happen in marriages is that we focus on whether or not our partner is meeting our needs. But Jesus taught us a different way. We will be blessed if we decide today to not focus on our own needs but to focus on giving and serving our partner.
Father, your Son perfectly modeled for us a life of self-giving love. We know that it is because of His desire to give rather than receive that we even have an audience with you today. Lord, we humbly ask that you rip out of our hearts every selfish desire and replace it with Christ-like compassion and a burning desire to serve others; especially our spouse. Bring to our mind today tangible ways that we can serve one another and give us the boldness and perseverance to follow through. Amen.
