Servanthood & Selflessness

Have you ever struggled to reconcile that you’re a child but also meant to show up as a servant as well?

When I began to hear the term servanthood in my Christian walk, there was always a jarring feeling that came with it. I knew I was a daughter and in the beginning when I started to understand the concept of what it meant to have God as my Father; there was a safety and protection it provided. There was this comfort it brought to me and I was secure in that. [I hope everyone gets to feel that and even when that feeling fades, God reminds you.]

But then I began to hear about servanthood, people began to say they were God’s servants. I started to hear more and more people talk about how we’re meant to be servants and I couldn’t reconcile the two because I couldn’t understand. How do you reconcile being a child and servant at the same time? So I ignored the “servant” aspect of my walk with God. I think the images we’ve been bombarded with in this day and age of what it looks like to be a servant contributed to it.

If I dig deeper, maybe it was because I didn’t want to look “less than.” I wanted to be as equal as everyone else, and now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong per se with wanting that, but we’ve already been assured by God through His Word that we’re equal in His sight. He sees His children with the same amount of love. I felt like if I were a servant, I wouldn’t have as much love as His other children or I wouldn't be seen as equal in the sight of others (peep the insecure thinking).

Recently, I’ve been reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren―I highly recommend everyone read that book, it will answer major questions you have as a Christian trying to figure out your way―and it broached the topic of servanthood and I began to understand and God in all His mercy and intentionality brought it more to me in my Bible study.

In Matthew 12:18-21, the writer speaks about Jesus as God’s chosen servant and as I studied it, it brought more to life that Jesus (who is and was God) humbled Himself to become a servant for each and every one of us.

Jesus, instead of coming as a King or God, came as a servant. It’s not that He didn’t recognize that He was God, the Son of God, our Lord or One who was here even before the world was. There was all that, but instead, He came as a servant to express something to us, that in as much as we’re royalty by being children of God, we’re meant to serve―God and others.

Philippians 2:5-8[NIV] tells us, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"

What I understood from reading that verse was that being a servant of God doesn’t take away that I am His child.

The real reason Jesus came to earth as a human was to serve both God―by fulfilling His wish of having us reunited with Him―and us―by showing us the way each of us was to be with others and what He so desires from us.

I'm also reminded of John 3:30 where John says, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

When you think of a servant, he lives a life of devotion to his master. His life is no longer his and it’s become his master’s. When John said that, He knew that there was a tendency for us to look at ourselves and consider ourselves before we even considered what God wanted or God willed for us.

In the case of a servant, it is literally the opposite. You consider Him first, you consider others before you even consider yourself. That is the kind of life God calls us to live. He doesn’t ask us to dispute the fact that we are His children but in being His child, we should desire to please Him like we do our earthly parents and what pleases Him is devoting our entire lives to Him; not a fraction, not a part, but the entire thing to Him.

And this is in everything we find ourselves doing. Serving Him looks like knowing Him because when you know what your Master likes or doesn’t like, you’ll know what to do. It looks like considering Him before making any decision because you know your life is dependent on Him, your life belongs to Him.

It looks like many other things but ultimately, being devoted to Him. Something we don’t like to hear though is that in as much as He wants us to serve Him, He also wants us to serve others and from my life, I’ve seen that this isn’t possible if I’m not serving Him first. When I serve Him, I start to see things the way He sees them, not fully but somehow, I start to look at others through the lens of compassion, kindness and love with which He sees us all and in wanting to please Him (not from a place of religion, but a place of love), I find that slowly, I don’t mind serving people.

A line that stuck out to me from The Purpose Driven Life was, 'Serving reveals your maturity—referring to spiritual maturity.'

Whether we like it or not, whether we want to do it or not, the extent and way in which you serve show the maturity you have in Christ because now, you’re no longer looking at yourself, you’re looking to fulfil the needs of others. It shows how far you've come.

So yes, in as much as we are called to be God’s children, selflessness and servanthood are core principles we are to embody on our walk with Christ and I don’t think this comes easily to anyone. To do this, you are going against the core of who you are in your flesh which is selfish naturally, but once your pleasure is found in Christ, In God, it becomes easier to see things through His lens and serving others is something that you find only adds to that pleasure.

Much Love,

Uche 🤍

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