April 26–Service vs Selfishness 

It’s Thursday and I am in Mexico, about 300 miles south of the border this morning and our plans are to make it the rest of the way into the mountains today. 


I love this passage where we are in Galatians 5. Probably because I love thinking about the people I know that personify the idea Paul is trying to get across in vs 13 when he basically says just because you are free, don’t use that as a get out of jail free card, but instead, love and serve other people. 

I know all of us can name many we know who fit that description, but Gary is the guy in the picture with my 95-year-old mother-in-law. Gary is in charge of the Honey Creek Retirement Village and no one has ever loved their people more or worked harder to ensure their well-being. He treats them all as though they were his own parents—with the love of Jesus, serving as his Master would have him to do. It’s truly his calling and he lives it out on a daily basis. 

“Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you....It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?...My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:1, 13-14 MSG‬‬  

Doesn’t it make you grind. When Paul just accepts that at our roots, we are all selfish. And service to others certainly ISN’T compatible with selfishness. When we live fervently, earnestly, welling up and springing up with God’s Spirit, those old compulsions DO begin to fade into the background. We think of more others and less of ourselves. True joy is Jesus, Others, and lastly yourself. 

OH Jesus, lover of my soul, mold me and make me as you would have me be in my freedom. Help us Father to truly think of others and how we can serve them in your name—being your hands and feet. We are so privileged to work in your name. You are God and you are holy, and you alone are worthy of our worship and our praise. Thank you Lord for this day and may we use it for your glory and honor. Amen and amen. 

Love you dear one, 

Pam



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