‘Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out
to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no
difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul
felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the
chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his
Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated
and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of
ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no
amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.’
CHAMBERS
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to serving
others is an expectation of gratitude.
You might do something for someone with great need and their response
is … they want more. I have observed in the past, for some people
.. when they have nothing and they get something .. they soon seem to want
everything. Ingratitude. If you become frustrated over people’s ungrateful
response to your service or kindness … what that means is that what you did,
came from an internal motivation to be and do good. Properly motivated
service to others will spring from the love of God. You must be mindful of just how ungrateful you
yourself can be toward what God has done for you and what others do for
you. And that realization will always temper
your response to others.
Luke
17:14-19 ‘When he [Jesus] saw them [ ten lepers who wanted
to be healed ], he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they
went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back,
praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked
him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are
the other nine? Has no one returned to
give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and
go; your faith has made you well.”’
I know it’s a stretch, but you could surmise from
this story that you can expect only 10% of the people you serve will be
grateful for the good done. I know that
is probably an inaccurate estimate, but it does point to the fact that your
doing-good cannot be based upon how others might respond … but on the prompting
of God’s Spirit and the love we are to show others. If people treated Jesus
that way, why should you expect to be treated any differently. And notice, Jesus did not undo the healing of
the nine nor was he frustrated by it.
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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