Do you want to be great?

Jesus came to serve rather than be served. Those who want to be his greatest followers, those he honors as great in Heaven, will serve just as he did. They will humbly wait on others in love. They will give of themselves for the good of their neighbors. They will look not only to their own interests, but also to the interests of those around them.

Knowing what greatness means to Jesus, I want you to seriously consider this one question: Do you want to be great in God’s kingdom? If you do, you must become a servant. You cannot become great in Heaven’s eyes any other way. There are no other options. God’s way to first place is taking last place. “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35, NIV)

I ask you again: Do you want to be great in God’s kingdom? I hope you do. I hope pleasing God has over the years since you gave your life to Jesus become more important to you than pleasing yourself. I hope you are more willing today to sacrifice your own desires for his. I hope you are a more humble slave of Christ today than you were last year.

Not that any of us are perfect in this. We falter from time to time. We slip into “lord it over others” mode occasionally. We flex our “authority” muscles in worldly ways in public and in private more often than we’d like to admit. But as mature followers of Jesus, desperately seeking to do his will, we catch ourselves more quickly when we revert to our childish “my-way-or-the-highway-me-first” ways than we used to. We recognize our sin. We repent of it. We wrap a towel around our waist once again and serve.

Why? Because we love our savior, Jesus, who humbled himself and died on a cross in our place so we could have eternal life instead of death. Because being great in his eyes is all that matters to us.

Isn’t that true of you? It is of me. Even when I fail, my desire is to be great in Jesus’ eyes, to serve rather than be served.

You want to be great in Jesus’ eyes, too. His opinion is the one that matters most to you. I know you. You are good, kind-hearted people, followers of Jesus. Your heart’s longing is to serve your Lord by serving others. You know that doing so will bring joy to your Savior. You know that doing so will bring glory to your Father in Heaven.

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