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If each one of us who has received grace, the unmerited favour from God, for cleansing from sin and adoption as His children, understands the value of this grace in contrast to what we truly deserve, we will have the desire to serve Him with the rest of our life (2Co.5:14,15). Each one has a particular role and task in the body of Christ, and it is our desire to fulfil those, whether they are among the publicly recognised positions such as pastors or preachers or not (1Co.12:18). But we can become more efficient and successful in carrying out our individual tasks only as we allow the Holy Spirit to purify us within (2Ti.2:20,21).

We get a great example from Paul who made himself willing to do whatever was needed to draw all people to the Saviour. He was able to do this because he was not serving God in order to gain anything for himself (1Co.9:16,17). His heart was so free from seeking his own that if he could exchange his life to bring others to salvation, he was willing (Ro.9:3). We cannot serve others if we do not value them and we care only for ourselves.

The more we seek things for ourselves while we imagine that we are serving God, our ministry will only be a powerless, superficial one. If our goal is to impress others with our spiritual gifts or natural talents, we may even succeed in that. But our so-called ministry will have little value in eternity (1Co.3:12,13). Sometimes we may get into ministry with all sincerity, but as money, pleasure or fame begins to draw us from within the ministry, we can fall, unless we are aware of such possibilities and watch out against them.

Satan tempted Jesus by offering Him the glory of the world, if He would just bow down to him. We will also be tempted to compromise godly values here and there in order to please people or to avoid offending them. We may go for what is politically correct or what people like rather than what will save them from sin or folly. If we want to serve God, we have to look out for the trap of wanting to be pleasing to man (Ga.1:10). Our goal is to always keep a good conscience before God rather than to create a good name before people.

Comparing ourselves with others can be a great snare. But we are different members in the body of Christ. We have different functions to carry out and accordingly our abilities and opportunities will also be different. Rather than compare oranges with tomatoes, we must learn to be faithful to the particular work God has entrusted to us. But here is where a great work of purification has to be going on inside us, where we must constantly learn to keep the focus on our Lord and what He wants us to do, rather than what will bring us accolades from people.

The reward of serving God is knowing that what we do will have an eternal impact on people, even if they themselves may not recognise that or we do not get any earthly benefit. We need to be purified from serving ourselves to serving God and His people.

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