#iGrowchallenge: The Discipline of Service

Spiritual Practice for the Week: The Discipline of Service

Service is a way of offering resources, time, treasure, influence, and expertise for the care, protection, justice, and nurture of others. Acts of service give hands to the second greatest commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself”.  Practicing service as a discipline this week gives us a way to practice a lifestyle of service that we are called by God to live out as followers of Christ.

The spiritual discipline of service is primarily rooted in a different way of seeing: seeing others as God see’s them.  The spirit of Jesus is a compassionate, serving Spirit that always works for the good of others…..we are called to see as God see’s and then demonstrate that with our actions. This is not just religious rhetoric that we simply endorse as a rule of thumb. The Christian discipline of service is the way the world discovers the love of God. We are the way God blesses the earth.

This week, as you practice the discipline of service, here are a few practical suggestions. Feel free to try a few or think of some other way you could think/pray more about service and involve yourself in intentional work that benefits others.

1. Every morning for the next week or two ask your spouse, roommate, friend, or collegue, “what can I do for you today? Then do it. Talk to God about what this is like for you. What do you see about yourself?

2.  Divide a paper into three columns. Above one column write “for me”. Above the second write “for others” and above the third write “for God”. Review the past week or month and write down in each column the things you have bought and done for yourself, others, and God. What does this inventory reveal about your life?  Take time to read Luke 23. What has God given because he loves you? How would you like to see the columns change over the next months? Listen to your longings and God’s promptings.

3. Think through a monthly and yearly practice of intentional service that you could involve yourself in, such as a missions project or relief project.  Consider which type of project speaks to some of the longings in your own heart.

4. Ask those who know you this week what your spiritual gifts are. Plan a way of using your gifts to benefit others in the next week or month.

5. Get to know a missions organization or another organization helping those in great need either personally or over the web. Ask them how you could serve.

6. Give a small micro-finance loan of 20 euros or more to one of the poorest of the poor around the world trying to start a small business through www.kiva.org.

7. Sponsor a child so that they can receive schooling and the love of Christ in some of the poorest parts of the world through Compassion International: www.compassion.com (or compassion.nl).