The Evil One tried to steal my joy this past week.

I’ve mentioned in other posts on hospitality that it doesn’t come naturally for me. I’m not an outgoing person who makes friends easily. So this act of serving by being hospitable is really an act of obedience for me. Despite the fact that it doesn’t come naturally for me, I do find great joy in having the honor to serve someone else. One challenge I have faced is that when I obey God’s call to serve, the Evil One does whatever he can to turn my heart from one of having joy in doing service to one of bitterness. I continually find that the more I engage in hospitality and acts of service, multiple problems arise in the midst of my service. It could be little things like this past weekend when I hosted small group at our house and a few people had to back out last minute. This meant that whatever food they had signed up to bring, I had to make that food (meaning running out to the grocery store a few times). The stress involved in dragging kids out to the store multiple times had an impact on my joy. How I respond to problems that arise in the midst of serving can determine whether my joy is stolen or not.

Recently, my husband and I committed to helping another family by serving them in multiple ways. We didn’t want to prevent others from serving so we invited others to help us carry it out. We didn’t get as much help as we wanted and I found feelings of bitterness creep into my heart. This response of bitterness took over the joy in my heart. The Spirit convicted me and pointed out that I was not being a faithful servant.

Once I begin to feel that bitterness or my service becomes more an act of drugery than of helping, I’m really no longer a servant. A servant doesn’t care about the cost of serving, or the sacrifice involved, or whether anyone appreciates it or not. A servant serves purely out of love for Christ. It is an act done for him alone.

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-44

The Spirit is teaching me to confront those bitter thoughts and replace them with the truth in God’s word. He has called me to serve and to serve with joy because he “loves a cheerful giver.” I am to follow Christ in the example of servanthood he demonstrated when he gave up his heavenly home for one of poverty, rejection, humiliation and death.

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Phillipians 2:3-8