The way of the faithful is marked by service, hope and love. We who follow Christ Jesus must awake each day ready to serve, hope and love in the places where He has given us to be. We may serve, hope and love as protectors, providers, care takers, home makers, leaders, officials, pastors, teachers, professionals, students or in other roles. When we prepare ourselves, or help to prepare others, our hearts become like His. We are then able to serve, hope and love.
HIS Way Is Service
When we serve we look like Him. When our reason for doing anything is to serve the Lord to our best ability and to serve others, our intentions are altruistic.
Matthew 20:28 (NKJV), records to words of Jesus speaking to his disciples and telling them they are not to lead like the Gentiles do, lording their authority over their subjects, but to do as He does, and follow His example, when He says concerning Himself, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
HIS Way is Hope
No matter what circumstance strikes at your heart, Jesus will save you. He will lift you, He will hide you, He will heal you. He will hold you.
In John 12:13 (NKJV), it records the actions of the crowd that gathered as Jesus entered into Jerusalem for His triumphant entry, on the day that we celebrate as Palm Sunday, when the people who had put their hope in Him, “took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” The word “Hosanna,” means, “Save Us!” When we likewise go out to meet him, and cry out to him, “Save Us!” we too are putting our hearts hope in the One who comes in the name of the Lord. He is Hope. Hope has a name. Jesus, the King of Israel, the King of all those who have come to Him by faith.
HIS Way is Love
There is no greater thing that remains, than love. When Faith, Hope and Love, are lined up, Love wins out (1 Cor. 13). When we love like Jesus, we partake in His sufferings as well as His victories.
Romans 5:8 (NKJV) teaches, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is epic. Who would die for a filthy, hateful, vulgar, vindictive, vile, wicked, selfish person who is full of the devil, and despises God, and the things of God, and the people of God? Who would see this person as worthy of any amount of love, much less a God-ordained, appointed, completely sacrificial love? Yet, this redemptive love of God surpasses the human quality of our imperfect love. It is His love that makes it possible to love the unlovable. The unworthy. The difficult. The liar. The murderer. The fornicator. The adulterer. The hater. The envious, the scornful, the backslider, and the list goes on. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, (Romans 5:8).”
Article Written by: Debbie Harper, Ph.D.
