Unworthy Servant! ♡♡♡

 

"Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'come along now and sit down to eat? Won't he rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink"? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was supposed to do? So you also when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty." - Luke 17:7-10

I love love scriptures that keep me humble. It does a lot of good for my heart and I bet yours too. At first when you read this portion in Luke 17, you are like huh?! but really tis a good one :). Jesus was speaking to his disciples on the topic of forgiving one another, no matter how many times there was an offence. To which they respond "Increase our faith" lol. Well, keeping it real, you bet faith is indeed required sometimes to forgive - Jesus then goes on to share that even "faith" as small as a mustard seed could move mountains [i.e no matter how difficult continuous forgiveness seemed, faith could make it happen]. Interestingly in the same passage of scripture: Jesus uses an analogy of a servant plowing and looking after sheep to demonstrate to the disciples the kind of attitude they ought to have as they seek to follow and obey God's instructions. [The servant is simply doing his duty]. Friends, these strings of conversations are no coincidence at all.

"..... Will he thank the servant because he did what he was supposed to do? So you also when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty." - Luke 17:9-10

I know in my walk sometimes, I can have mind debates on certain things I know to do, simply because they are hard [let's be real here, hello]. "Lord, you mean I should still make effort with this person? even though you see what they are doing? They'll continue to take me for granted. "Lord you mean I should go and apologize?" and so many other things, we argue about in our minds, when clearly scripture is asking us to be more Christlike. We can get so caught up in debates on what things to obey in scriptures, how we feel, or what things are much harder and "humanly impossible", that we fail to see the bigger picture all together. Jesus says that even faith as small as a mustard seed can help us get through some of these huddles :) Funny how the disciples asked for an increase in faith and Jesus is like even faith as small as a mustard seed will do. Increasing it is not necessarily the issue. Start with the little you already know. You believe God exists? Then Obey him! You believe He rewards?! Obey Him.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" - Hebrews 11:6

I believe this is the kind of faith that Jesus speaks to. Our service and surrender to God is an act of faith. We respond in faith through our Godly actions, as an affirmation that we believe God exists and that He indeed rewards those who diligently seek Him. You want to know the honest truth? This is never always the first thing that comes to my mind when I am in  pickle. Naturally, I want to fight for myself, stick up for myself and preserve myself a lot of the times, but "faith" knows to lean on God and not on self. Faith knows that forgiving his brother or sister is not for self but for God who sees. Faith knows that being more Christlike is a loving response of reciprocity for what God has finished for us on the cross.

 You & I are the unworthy servants, who should simply be about our Father's business doing what He has asked us to do. I love that in Jesus' analogy, scripture says ""Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'come along now and sit down to eat? Won't he rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink"? - Good news - the servant gets to eat and drink in the end, but it will be after he has waited on his master. You can bank on it, that although the servant is simply doing thier duty, God will indeed reward those who diligently seek Him. The Servant also get's to eat and drink when the master returns. Will this be you when the master returns? Or will you be arguing back and forth about how "it makes you feel?"

I always have to remind myself time and time again that what I do, I do for God and not for men. This helps when the road gets tough.

                  "We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty"

Love,

SR