If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. … then you will find your joy in the LORD,
Isaiah 58:10-11, 14.
We are looking at the furrows that need to be ploughed to ensure joy is produced. Today it is the furrow of Service!
Jesus said ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:37-40)
It is not always been easy to recognise the ‘least of Christ’s brothers and sisters, that is, the people we should be serving. That’s not to say that the world isn’t full of need, for it is. In fact, the magnitude of the need is precisely the problem. It often paralyses us because we don’t know where to begin, and we can’t do it all. Or we may plunge ourselves into the needs around us indiscriminately, then rapidly burn out. Either way leads eventually along a joyless road.
Everyone is called to serve. However vague at times the Lord’s leading may seem to be, it’s better to be doing something than nothing. Otherwise, a life of minimal service is a life of minimal joy!
When we seek the Lord’s will diligently in prayer, fasting, and scriptural study, He makes it clear to us how we’re to be serving. The danger is that free time can be wasted. Or we spend so much time doing ‘churchy’ stuff we have no time to serve those that Jesus wants us to serve.
The place where God calls us should be the place where our greatest gladness and the worlds greatest need come together. This isn’t to say that joyless service for a season is wrong; we often have to sow in tears before we can reap in joy (Psalm 126:5).
We need to find ‘the least of these’ that God is calling us to serve.
Reread the Isaiah passage above. Also look up Matthew 25:31-46.
Have I given you too much to read today? Well read it again! And lastly consider this age old wisdom:
‘The soul of one who serves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for singing’. St John of the Cross.