Devotionals
While at work this week, I was sweeping the floor and a customer approached and said, “hey clean-up person the men’s bathroom needs to be cleaned.” The employees standing around got quite a kick out of this and said stuff like, ‘hey boss, get in there and clean the bathrooms,’ and on and on!
You see I’m the manager, but how was the guy to know. I don’t wear a t-shirt that says ‘I’m the manager,’ or demand the employees call me manager, but what I do is work diligently at setting an example. I try to manage my team with the mentality, I won’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do, which means you may walk in and find me cleaning the bathrooms or like on this day, sweeping the floor!
As I listened to all the good-humored comments, I began to contemplate the servant’s heart! You see I could very easily manage with a club, bark orders and sit behind my desk all day oblivious to what’s going on in the world outside my office, but I choose to meet the people where they are! I choose to work along side of them, encouraging them and guiding them! Let me tell you the result to this kind of management is mind-blowing.
This brings me to the concept of having a servant’s heart versus walking around boasting of your position or using your position to maintain a state of fear! So often we get this crazy idea, whether conscious or unconscious, that we’ve arrived and it’s time for people to start treating us as such! I’ve seen it in the corporate world as well as the Christian world; only you may have heard it called ‘holier-than-thou-attitude.’
It isn’t a very pretty attribute, nonetheless, it is part of the pride factor that loves to sneak up and hi-jack us. All too often with a promotion in rank, we suddenly get a big head and strut around like we’re all that! We want people to see we’ve arrived, but do not fear, there is a way to combat this nasty attitude and that is to remember from where we have come! I don’t know about you, but for me this is very humbling.
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3 NKJV
The word soberly in the above text comes from the Greek word Sophroneo (so-fron-eh'-o) and it means to be in one's right mind; to exercise self control; to put a moderate estimate upon one's self and to think of one's self soberly.
You see it is God’s grace, God’s merciful kindness that has brought us where we are today! The prince of darkness could still enslave us, but because of God’s grace, we have been set free! But I must exercise self-control; I must keep in mind that the people I work for and the people that work for me are human beings just like me! The people I worship with or the pastor that preaches the sermon is a human, just like me! The people addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography, homeless, etc., are humans, just like you and I, and if it were not for the grace of God, there go I.
We can attend the best church in the country, we can hold the best job in the world, we can drive the finest of cars, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that if it were not for the grace of God we’d still be in bondage! The freedom in Christ that we enjoy should not be a cloak of bondage on those around us!
We all have a testimony; we all have a story of where God has brought us from, but if we do not exercise love; if we do not have a servant’s heart, then what is our testimony? If we are not willing to be the clean-up person, but rather use our rank as an instrument of fear, then where is the love?
Love came into this world a baby! He should have been born in a palace and raised as royalty! He should’ve never had to touch a leper or come face to face with those possessed by demons! He should have ridden in a chariot, but He chose a donkey! He should have been chauffeured from city to city and stayed in the finest of inns, but Love didn’t allow His rank or position to dictate how He lived!
Just as the Son of Man came not to be waited on but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [the price paid to set them free]. Matthew 20:28 AMP
His blood has washed us!
When you begin to think you’ve arrived take a step back and realize it is only the grace of God that has allowed you to see today! When you begin to think you are better than those around you, take a moment and recall the time you spent in the depth of darkness! When you begin to think you are too good for the clean-up work, fix your eyes on Jesus and remember He should have never had to wash the dirty feet of His disciples, but He humbled Himself as an example (note it is never mentioned where the disciples washed His feet) of pure Love!
Jesus, Lord of Lords and King of Kings! You should have resided in a palace and been raised as royalty! You certainly didn’t deserve the treatment You received, then and even now! Forgive us Lord for thinking we’ve arrived and help us Lord to think soberly of ourselves, to exercise self-control and to remember that it is ONLY by Your grace that we are where we are today! Help us Lord to be an example of Your love and grace to those we live with, work with and simply come in contact with! We humbly as in Your mighty Name, Amen!
Further reading: Ephesians 6:7; Mark 10:44; Galatians 6:2; Luke 22:27; Philippians 2:7
Thought for today: “The best and most useful man in the world is no more, no better, than what the free grace of God makes him everyday. When we are thinking of ourselves, we must remember to think not how we attained; but think how kind God hath been to us.” Matthew Henry
© Jounda LaMance November 19, 2006
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