Since November of 2017, every time that I find myself at an adoration chapel or I am in a quiet place of reflection, this hymn keeps popping up in my mind as I pray. You may be familiar with it. It goes something along the lines of:
“What do you want of me, Lord? Where do you want me to serve You?”
(The Servant Song)
Hmm. Serving God.
Where does God want me to serve Him?
This has been a burning question that I have been asking God and myself for the past several months. And every time I asked or sought out an answer from Him, all I would hear was pure silence.
Does God want me to serve Him in the church? For the church? In my family? In CFC-Youth or on campus only?
These were questions I kept asking God and because I felt like I was not getting an answer, I grew quite impatient and frustrated with Him.
However, just recently (literally earlier today) a dear sister of mine shared an inspiring quote that has answered, or at least has opened my eyes to understand where the Lord has been calling me to.
The quote says: “Instead of having to try to figure everything out, try to figure out this: How am I going to serve the Lord today? How am I going to make the most of this moment, with what He has already given me?” (Morgan H. Nichols)
As soon as I read this I realized that maybe the reason why I did not get an answer from God was because I was asking all the wrong questions. Instead of asking where does God want me to serve, I should have been asking Him, how.
As disciples and followers of Christ, we should not become so fixated on where God wants us to serve because frankly, God calls us to serve wherever we are! If we keep worrying about the “where” when it comes to service, we will eventually make excuses to not serve in that particular area anymore telling God “oh, it’s too far; too scary; it’s out of my comfort zone,” and so forth.
Rather, we should be taking the time to reflect on how we can serve God to the best of our abilities. We should also try our best to use what we already have and own to serve Him more fruitfully. Such as using our God-given talents, exercising our strengths and even taking the time to develop and work on our weaknesses when serving Him. At the end of the day, we should be continuously lifting all of this up to God as we serve.
“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
There is no specific requirement that we need in order to become a servant of God either. God calls all types of people to serve Him but only if we are willing and open enough to accept this calling of ours.
With that being said, let us ask God for the wisdom, compassion, and faith that we need to be the true servants God calls us to be. Let us also not spend so much time focusing on where God is calling us to serve but rather ask Him how we can serve Him better every day.
Thank You, Lord for this simple reminder and for calling me to serve You in the big and small ways! May I continuously grow in courage so that I may be able to serve you more faithfully, especially as I begin this new journey of becoming an MVA (Omg, I’m an MVA!)
Amen.
– Danielle M. Lape