For my daily devotion I read 1 Samuel 11 and 12. Two passages stuck out to me and made me question the true meaning of serving the Lord.
1 Samuel 12:20, "'Do not be afraid,' Samuel replied. 'You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.'"
1 Samuel 12:24, "'But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with al your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.'"
In present time, I thought that serving the LORD meant to volunteer at church, but in these passages, and other passages, it says to serve the LORD with all your heart. I am interested in getting feedback on what people believe that phrase to mean. You can write your opinion or if you can think of examples from the Bible that would be awesome as well!
~Drew
When I was reading this entry, it intrigued me. I thought about what it means to serve the Lord with all your heart. Here are some of my thoughts on the topic.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is called to be in ministry. Thus the phrase, serve the Lord with all your heart. This means constantly we are to live a life worthy of the Lord. We are called to be God’s servant. However, what does that mean to live a life where you serve the Lord with all your heart?
Does it mean that everyone is to serve in the church? Probably not. However, we are called to live a life that is constantly showing grace to everyone. In Matthew 25:37 – 40,
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Jesus constantly is teaching us to reach out in the community and serve. When we serve others, we are serving the Lord. The beauty of our faith is that serving the Lord with all our heart is possible and is carried out so differently since we are all so unique.
In 1 Corinthians 12, it speaks of spiritual gifts. Each person is blessed with one or more of these gifts. It continues in talking about the human body how each part is important but does some different task. 1 Corinthians 12:29
29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.
Such as the body, each one of us makes up a vital part of serving the Lord. All of this is to say that to serve the Lord with all your heart means to wake up each day and to glean a line from John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, In all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”