Humble Service In Peace
Monday’s Verse:
From Ephesians 4:3 ESV
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
After Holy Trinity’s church service on Sunday, I reflected on the importance of humble service and how I can improve my ability to serve God and others. The thought stemmed from my Sunday sermon. This Labor Day Monday (can you imagine it is already September 1st!), let us reflect upon humble service in Jesus as we walk in this broken world.
In a world that knows all too well how to strut about and insist on its own way, the Spirit teaches us to live by different rules, the gift of peace. “In your relationships with one another,” Saint Paul says, “you must maintain the inner peace by which you were reconciled in Christ.” It’s not about getting our own way, winning arguments, or promoting our point of view. The peace that exists between us is a gift to be guarded, not made. Jesus created peace between us and God and among ourselves through His sacrifice on the cross.
To live humbly in the peace of Christ is to take up the servant’s posture and follow the Lord who knelt to wash His disciples’ feet. The humble servant I spoke about this weekend is grounded in fully trusting in Christ. By trusting in Him, we listen before we talk, forgive when we are offended, and give of ourselves when it requires sacrifice.
By serving one another in love, we allow the Spirit to make us into a united body. In our family, our church, our community, our world, this kind of humble service is the way the kingdom of God breaks into our messy lives and tells the truth about what God is doing in Christ. It is how we say, by the way we live: there is peace, there is reconciliation, there is love, and it is stronger than all the strutting and shoving in the world.
Prayers
A Prayer for Today:
Lord Jesus, You are our peace. Teach us to walk in humility, to serve one another in love, and to preserve the unity of the Spirit. Make us instruments of Your peace in this divided world, until that day when all are gathered as one in Your kingdom. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
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