Have you been jaded by helping others?

Risk is involved when you set out to serve the Lord by helping and serving others. For God’s will to come to pass, it takes everyone involved to hear the Lord and be obedient. Just like building a house takes the electrician, the plumber, and the carpenter to work together and do their job. Moreover, to bring an assignment through to completion for the Lord requires everyone involved to do what they are supposed to. Imagine the house, if the plumber showed up but didn’t do the work?

I believe that God can very well call you to help, knowing the final outcome is not what you are expecting, however, the role you play, the example you give, the obedience you exhibit is for all the spectators. To be an example of doing what the Bible says.

I talk the talk, and walk the walk. I talk about helping people. I go out and help people. It’s up to the people involved, receiving the help to be obedient themselves and receive, accept, submit, and appreciate, etc.

Here is where we must realize that while we live in a fallen world of sinful, carnal men, we must remain faithful to God. We cannot always see what He is doing - our job is to show up and do what He says. If our efforts fail, we dust off our knees and start over.

Many times our efforts fail because of those we are serving/helping not submitting to God’s instructions to them. Everyone has a role to play. People should be filled with work ethics, integrity, honesty, etc.

I empathize and understand that many of them have been jaded by the world and now seek their own. They live for only themselves, they make attempts to take advantage and come up. They resort to being petty, picky, unappreciative, and walk in the flesh. They disqualify themselves. But as a servant of God, you did what you were called to do and allowed God to use you.

You may find yourself scratching your head and wondering: Why did I even try? What was that all about?

God is sovereign. Even with Judas who betrayed Jesus, God used his sin and greediness to turn the switch on God’s sovereign plan of Jesus going to the cross.

The Bible says that those who ‘endure to the end shall be saved’. I turn to this verse when I am confused, taken advantage of, broken by believers, persecuted by hypocrites, and abandoned. See, I must know that I did what God called me to do and stay committed to remaining obedient for the next time God gives me an assignment.

God has given us freewill. We are not robots. People have the choice to do their part, keep their word, and be faithful themselves. I have the choice to let it ruin me, discourage me, and no longer endure.

I serve a redeeming God. He can do what He desires at any time. I am mindful always that this life is all about the sanctification process. Enduring through peoples disobedience sanctifies you. Suffering sanctifies you. Being rejected sanctifies you. Look at Jesus Christ: He was rejected, betrayed, persecuted, and crucified. Can we honestly expect life to be free from disappointment and suffering?

Through all of it, we cannot give up ourselves and allow our hearts to be hardened. Becoming more Christ-like requires us to remain unstained by the world, and this is the goal as it says in James.

Success in the Kingdom of God looks NOTHING like the success in the world. Power, prestige, and riches are what the world measures success by. A dirt poor missionary in a 3^rd world country, with nothing to their name can be more successful than Steve Jobs. How many people did that missionary win to the Lord? But many idolize Steve Jobs for his intellect, brilliance, marketing, and inventions. Where is he spending eternity? Who is richer, the missionary or Jobs?

See, this is where the world’s ways of operation cannot invade how the Holy Spirit operates. And too often, too many measure you by your worldly success, or lack thereof.

For the record, worldly success is not what I am after. It’s all vanity and grasping for the wind (Read Ecclesiastes).

Jesus Christ didn’t come to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28). So it’s clear that serving others is walking the real walk, true? What walk are you walking?