We want to share a passage of scripture with you that we believe will transform your heart and mind on the topic of serving others. We, as a church body, will be focusing on this scripture throughout the year. It’s Romans 15:1-13 in the Message translation. In today’s blog, we will get into the first half of this passage in detail!
The passage begins “Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter”. Is that your go-to move when someone falters or has a misstep in life? Do you step in and lend a helping hand? We can tell you what the world does, what our flesh wants to do. That’s criticize and gossip. Our flesh wants to point out mistakes and mess-ups in other people. But our spirit wants to rise up and help! Love covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter4:8), so shouldn’t we?
When we give in to our fleshly desire to criticize and judge we are preventing ourselves from receiving the fullness of the blessing of God. The enemy wants you to do his dirty work for him. Sometimes the Lord assigns people to us to uplift and restore. When we criticize, judge, and gossip, we are working for the enemy to cancel that Heaven-sent assignment!
Do you know that there is no safe place to speak the language of the enemy? Sometimes it’s easy to believe the lie of the enemy that we can say whatever pops into our heads in the comfort of our own home or when we’re talking to our spouse. When the enemy tempts you to speak ill of others in the privacy of your home, you fight back by declaring the Word over them instead. As you pray for and bless people you will see a change in your heart towards them. If you do enough of that, you’ll act like Jesus when you see them too, and it'll come easy to you!
The passage continues “and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status”. It is not always convenient to minister. And don’t think ministry is just for those with a microphone and a platform. Everyone is a minister of the Gospel! Ministry starts at home with those closest to you and it branches out from there. It flows into your workplace, into your friendships, and into random encounters with strangers. Ministry takes time and it takes effort. It takes vulnerability and it takes faith.
As we read on we see “Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around, asking ourselves, “How can I help? That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out.” The opposite of this is looking at the people around us and asking them “What were you thinking?”. Or, it’s looking to someone else and saying “Have you heard…” as we proceed to gossip about the condition of someone else’s life. If you have been starting conversations with “have you heard” followed by anything but the gospel, we have a word for you from Heaven. “Shut up”.
If you think God doesn’t advise people to hush, let’s talk about the children of Israel. The generation that preceded them murmured and complained their lives away in the wilderness. So when God ordered them to march around Jericho for 6 days, He told them to do it without speaking! This was to protect them from the desire of their flesh and the pattern of their predecessors to murmur and complain. Being quiet led them to victory!
If we want to wade right in and help like Jesus did, we can’t be caught up in what WE want all the time. It’s not always easy to lend a helping hand. It’s not always glamorous to wade into the sins of someone around us. It’s messy. Let’s not forget that we have all been a mess at some time or another. How glad are we that Jesus waded in and sent others to wade in with us? Lending a helping hand requires time, emotion, and prayer. Lending a helping hand doesn’t serve self. It serves others, which pleases the heart of our Loving Father!
As we pray for you to lend a helping hand, we also pray for others to be inclined to lend you a helping hand if you find yourself in need. We pray for you to have the strength to serve! We are believing for you to rise up over the noise of your flesh and the enemy to answer the call of God, even when it’s messy and even when it’s inconvenient! We love you and we love hearing from you. You can always reach out to us in person or by phone if you want someone to believe with you and partner in prayer!
