On Being A Servant of God
I don’t get much time to read books nowadays, and I don’t often read books twice. But there are a few that do get read more than once… and this one I have read twice and underlined loads, because it is FULL of inspiration, challenge, and encouragement to greater things.
It is about serving God, which we all should all be doing in some way or other as Christians. And if you’re worried that you’re not serving God because you’re at home all day, Spurgeon says “You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.”
In this book Warren Wiersbe has collected his thoughts on what he has learned over the years from Christian ministry. There is lots of challenging stuff, but I like to be challenged.
I don’t want to just go along at the same pace – I want to grow more like Christ every day, and learn how to please Him better. So I see this kind of thing as a great help to motivate me and show me how to grow in my Christian life.
Here are some great excerpts:
On the glory of God: ‘When you find yourself more concerned about your “image” than your character and your work, you have stopped glorifying God.’
On forgiveness: ‘The biblical meaning of forget (as in Heb 10:17) is “not to hold it against the person and let it affect your relationship.”‘
On bad days: ‘Make up your mind that you’re going to serve God, no matter how you feel. Then you can stop wasting precious time and energy having a debate with yourself every time you don’t feel good.’
On reading books: ‘When you stop reading, you stop growing and when you stop growing, you start dying.’
On joy in service: ‘Most of the people you meet day after day are either wasting their lives or merely spending their lives, but God’s servants have the privilege of investing their lives in what is eternal.’
On money: ‘Many of God’s choicest servants are underpaid and overworked, yet they count it a privilege to minister’
On failure: ‘How do we learn from our failures? Not by sitting in a corner and brooding over them. That approach only prepares the way for another downfall. The smart thing to do is to evaluate what we did and try to find out what went wrong.’
This stuff is sooooooooo good! I highly recommend this book for every Christian to read as it is so challenging and shows us how to have a godly focus, as well as pointing out pitfalls to steer clear of.
Hi Rhoda, Wonderful post! I love Warren Wiersbe but haven’t read this one yet — I’ll look forward to it.
I thought I had clicked to follow your blog on my last visit, but apparently it didn’t “take” — I did it again and hopefully I am now following!
Thanks so much for visiting Saved by Grace and commenting — I hope you’ll consider following too!
Love in Him,
Laurie
Thanks Laurie. Yes that book is filled with gems 🙂 Blogger is very temperamental sometimes!