Serving God

One Resurrection Sunday while I was on my 10-day mandatory leave and I was on vacation here in Japan in 2013, He found me.

Right there and then, I knew God has ordained that encounter for me to be where I needed to be; in the loving and forgiving hands of my Father.

An “unfamiliar supernatural force” drove me to a comfortable space I’ve never known before. It was where I experienced freedom from my need to work hard to prove people my worth.

Growing up, I had to pretend that we were also rich like my classmates at a private school where my parents bravely enrolled me, my sister and my brother, despite not having sufficient money to pay for our monthly tuition fees. That’s where we experienced not being allowed to take the periodic exams and being pulled out of the room where everyone was because we were not able to pay our dues. Imagine also not seeing your name on the honor roll list because it was covered until you’re paid. Because of shame, I lost my self confidence and until High school, I felt I was a “nobody” that I thought my reputation of being one of the bullies in class would cover it.

When I started working, I made sure I was performing so I could finally be a “somebody”. And I did. The desire to prove my worth grew even stronger when I got promoted as a level 3 Customer Support and also became a Subject Matter Expert that I had to work hard to maintain my reputation. I didn't care about other people and I was just focused on proving myself.

Until that One Resurrection Sunday.

I was set free from a performance-based-love. I finally embraced that I am loved by God not for who I am but for who He is.

He is love.

My life was radically changed from trying to achieve what I want into what God wants to accomplish through my life.

And then the Lord called me to be here in Japan after having my heart shed into pieces when my long time boyfriend then married another woman. A heartbreak that led me to leave my comfort place.

From being able to finish my 1 year course in studying Japanese, to finding a part time job while studying and finally landing a full time job that provided my working Visa, I just know it was all God's hands.

He supplied everything at the right time.

I am so full of His love that I was overly drawn to Him and since I know that there's absolutely no way I can reciprocate even half of it, I was compelled to serve Him, not to be loved and to be accepted because I already am, but because my heart is bursting of gratitude.

But why do we have to serve God when He's not in need of anything?

Because we're given a new life.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Because we have experienced the beauty of a life being transformed, we are most effective in bridging the gap towards the lost. Our new life in Him should make us serve Him.

Because we need to grow our faith.

Serving God will grow our faith.

When you start serving Him, doing things out of your comfort zone, you will see how He can cover your weakness with His unfailing strength and you will be amazed on how He will unfold things and the doors He'd open in a snap of His finger.

I actually lost track of how many times I've seen God's miracles in the lives of the people as I serve Him and that's where I credit the kind of faith and confidence I have in Him.

Because He first loved and served us.

Romans 5:6-8 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The word “serve” appears approximately 309 times throughout the Bible which means it is important to God and I strongly believe that when a person has a genuine relationship with God, he will serve Him. We would want to serve God because we know Him and an integral part of knowing Him is a desire to serve Him. Although as good as it sounds, it is not always easy because of several factors that may arise but this verse is one of the things I'm holding on:

Hebrews 6:10 "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them"

In short, He will not forget your service. He sees and He rewards.

The more we are aware of how Jesus loved and served us on the Cross two thousand years ago, the more we are to respond in His invitation to love and serve Him

Are you serving Him now? If yes, may He find you faithful until the end. If not yet, you can start by remembering His faithfulness, deliverances and love and start today because everyday is another opportunity to serve, touch a heart, inspire a soul and make a difference.

Would you?