Christian Living

Service as a lifestyle

by Lorraine Taylor 
06/07/19
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Romans 12:1

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service."

Ministry to me is not something to be 'claimed', but rather it is someone I am becoming; a lifestyle to be carried our in service to others. To minister to another is to serve them in a way that stretches who God desires me to become. Serving involves interrelating with others and this is not always comfortable, easy nor carried out without full and total surrender and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

As a Christian woman, ministry is serving beyond my own needs, my own wants and often my own preferences. It is a service where I sit down with another, walking with them, listening and opening my heart to hear their stories, rather than dazzling them with some brilliant theological premise, fancy words, or scriptural knowledge.

The simple act of sharing space with others is the sacred offering of myself as a living sacrifice.

This is what that scripture looks like in reality, the giving of myself, the offering of my time, energy, resources to the Holy One to move in passing His life through mine to touch another soul.

The radical love and hospitality of Christ pulls people closer and desires of me to see them and to hear them - from God's perspective - through His love filter. In order to actually hear another persons' story, I must cease my own thoughts and open myself in ways whereby I consider the other person in light of Christ's relationship in and with me.

When I am near another persons' heart and soul, I am in the midst of the divinity of Christ - who calls me to a higher standard - one of love - a love untainted by my own human conception.

It took many years for me to come to this point where I value relationships above any 'ministry' one might think I have. As people are not 'ministries', or projects to be 'fixed'. I cannot declare I have some 'ministry'. I am in nearest relationship with Christ when I am administering His love with each person I relate with and to. 

People are human beings in need of respect and in need of having someone safe to be themselves with and are to be valued for who they are, not what they can 'do', or what they can 'bring' to the table.

This type of radical being is who I have been chosen and called to become and to exemplify as a lifestyle - where relationships matter, where people matter, where I am honoring and valuing those I interconnect with - not as some 'divine appointment' as many in the Christian realm declare.

The only 'divine appointment' I know is encountering the divine nature of the Holy One each minute, each day with each person I meet, as He gives grace in the midst of my relationships, leading me nearer to God's purposes in glorifying Him.

Each encounter with another person is an opportunity for me to lay down my life in reflecting the heart of Jesus, giving full expression to His love.

Each person I meet is an opportunity for me to be this living sacrifice, where I fade into the background and the life of the Son of God - Jesus - is who becomes manifested, glorified and lifted up in the midst my relationships.

As one who professes Christ, it is His voice I desire to heed in relationships that produce conflicts, issues and can become quite complex, messy and cumbersome.

But when I submit my thoughts, heart and soul to the Spirit in my own reliance of God's ability in me, His grace grants to me the capacity to embrace all with an equal measure of mercy - not giving preferentially to some and not to others.

I have nothing to prove to anyone, nothing to achieve and nothing to be arrogant or puffed up about as when I relate from the life of the Son of God who is my life - it is His love who compels me to go beyond my human flesh tendencies.

In this way, I am becoming a living sacrifice - stepping into Christ as my source whose unlimited, unreserved well of grace - is always available and is always accessible to shape my words, tone and manner in which I interact in my relationships with others - glorifying Him.

When I understand developing near relationships as my service to other persons, I am beginning to view others from the perspective of God's heart. I am becoming God-conscious as I live from His life in my daily encountering others in the struggles and in the difficulties of those I come face to face with, who are dealing with complicated real life issues - not having simple easy solutions.

Relationships are the vehicle God uses to further transform me, teaching and leading me in the continual art of surrender, yielding and giving over of my desires, my tendencies to the radical call in becoming His love.

The mercy of Christ washes, renews, and cleanses wrong attitudes in His redemptive and reconciling love - aiding me to hold the hearts and souls of others in highest honor - respecting and valuing them as fellow brothers and sisters.

I am touching the hem of His garments in clothing my inner being in divine holiness when I walk, talk and breathe in practicing Christ's righteousness as a lifestyle in every relationship I encounter and with each person I meet.

It is Christ's love who compels my heart to show forth His life, to manifest His forgiveness, mercy, grace, goodness and true love in the midst of often messy and complex relationships.