A SERVANT HEART
14th Sep 2022
It has been a momentous week - The Queen has died and we have a new Prime Minister. However, the constant message that has come over the media is that of a Queen who devoted her life to serve her people, and who had a clear faith in God who was her source of strength and wisdom.
I believe that in a world where standards of righteousness and integrity are disappearing, we were privileged to have a Queen who had a personal and living relationship with God. I am sure her prayers have been effective in upholding many of our righteous values in this nation.
To have remained faithful to her promise made as a 21 year old princess, has been very impressive, but it is also a challenge to us all to live a life of servanthood. It is Jesus who set us the example, and Paul challenges us to imitate that in Philippians 2:5-8, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…..who made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself and became obedient to death.”
So how about your “servant heart”? Is that the way you live? The disciples had been with Jesus for some considerable time, watching how He lived and the way He related to those around Him and yet they got into an argument about who should be the greatest. Jesus rebuked them and then stated His own position, “I am among you as One who serves.” (Luke 22:27)
We can be very sensitive about our position in life. Many years ago I was travelling in South Africa with Colin Urquhart and we were going from place to place where Colin was ministering to large gatherings. I was with him to support and pray. We were leaving our hosts in one place and as they turned to say goodbye to me they had forgotten my name! A humiliating experience, which caused me to ask myself, am I here to be a colleague of the great preacher, or am I here to serve him and the Lord?
During this time as we remember and mourn for our late Queen, let us ask ourselves how is our “servant heart”? Who are we reaching out to and who are we seeking to serve?
by Charles Sibthorpe
