Your datebook is already filled to overflowing. But how many of those activities are designed to serve, to give, to pour out God's blessing on others? Are you making time to be light?
God calls us to present-moment service. This takes constant awareness of who we're with or what we're doing at the present moment. Who does God want me to help or to speak to now? What hard or easy task can I do for his glory? Present-moment service doesn't replace a ministry we're already doing. It means that we remain open to surprise opportunities to share the Lord while we're serving. Rather than being totally focused on the service we're doing and what we've determined to accomplish, we listen for the Holy Spirit's guidance about what he would have us do this minute. This is where wisdom and spiritual discernment are so vital... knowing when to say yes or no to what we're asked to do. God calls us to seek him daily in order to serve him daily. Through our devotional time and as we constantly carry on a conversation with the Lord and listen for his still, small voice throughout the day, we'll become more and more tuned to what he desires for us. We'll know how to lovingly serve others as we trust him to give us the guidance we need. Sheila Cragg
Selections from Romans 16
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae. So you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help. For indeed she has been a benefactor of many and of me also.Now I implore you, brothers, watch out for those who cause dissensions and pitfalls contrary to the doctrine you have learned. Avoid them; for such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
Phoebe's tribute is short and simple She has been a benefactor of many. It's surely the understatement of a long-ago year. But knowing women like Phoebe, I'm sure she treated these words as a lot of fuss about nothing. Shucks, she was just glad she could help.
Phoebe's name literally means bright. And those who serve like her brighten the lives of others in ways that few ever see, but which extend God's blessings to many to their churches, neighbors, and families to the sick, the imprisoned, the dying to the weary, the lonely, the downcast. The thanks you receive may (like Phoebe's) be brief and infrequent, but keep letting your light shine, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16). What more thanks could you want?
