This whole January series, Reset, is about resetting our lives to be centered on the wisdom of God, and one of the ways we are called to do that is in serving others. Below, you will have opportunities to interact with this article to help you reset your thinking about serving others.
Reset: Your Thoughts
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it (Matthew 16:25).
Here in this verse, Jesus clearly calls us to be losers! Our lives in Christ, are not about consuming, gaining and hoarding; our lives are about giving, generosity and sacrifice for others!
The thought of sacrificing your comfort and plans for the future, losing your control, and giving away your money to serve others can be intimidating and scary. But Jesus tells us that our path to true life is at the end of self-sacrifice. We need to reset.
Let’s ask God to help reset our thinking when it comes to losing.
Below, list the things you are afraid to lose or sacrifice.
Line by line, surrender those things to God.
Line by line, ask him if there is a sacrifice he wants you to make in service of others in 2019.
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Reset: Your Gifts
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10).
Sometimes we think the gifts God gives people to serve others are special church gifts like preaching, teaching in graceKIDS!, or the ability to organize an event.
While those are definitely giftings God gives to his church, that’s a very small view of gifts that God gives us to use in service of others! We need to reset.
Scripture teaches us that Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17).
Your gifts are everything good that God has given you. So it’s your talents, your personality, your resources, your job, your house, your pantry, your bank account, your schedule, your day off, and so many other things that God has put in your hands.
Let’s ask God to help reset our thinking about gifts that we are to use in service of others.
Below list the good gifts God has put in your life.
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Look at that list! Isn’t God so good to you?! Line by line, take a moment and thank Him for each of those blessings.
Now with 1 Peter 4:10 in mind, “you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,” line by line, think through how you could bless others with that gift in 2019.
Reset: Your Blessings
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your alap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38).
We have a saying around Grace, “When we show up, God shows up.” Jesus is showing us that when we show up to pour out our lives in service to others, God shows up to pour out his blessings on us! So the way to experience God’s blessing is not to sit with our hands out waiting on it to fall from heaven but it’s to get up and work hard to be a blessing to others! We need to reset.
Let’s ask God to help reset our thinking when it comes to blessing.
Below list where you want to experience God’s blessings in your life in 2019.
Line by line, think through how you can serve and be a blessing to others in that area of your life in 2019.
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I hope these exercises will be helpful to you as you ask God to reset your thinking about serving others.
But I think the best exercise we can do is spend time with the One who didn’t come to serve but came to serve and give his life as a ransom for us. The more time you spend in 2019 with the Great Giver, the more your heart will be shaped into his heart of generosity.
