Friday, February 24, 2012

A Servant’s Relationship with God




“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,

My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him. Isaiah 42:1 (NKJV)



In the above verse, we read of God directing our attention to His Servant. We have to understand what Isaiah means by the term ‘servant’. The definition in my Bible dictionary/Concordance* tells us: servant-one who responds to the needs of others.

Behold! The Lord God speaks through Isaiah to draw our attention to His Servant, Jesus. God tells us this is important and we need to pay attention. A small child sees something that enchants him. He screams, “Looky!” As our son grew up, if I wanted to make a point to our son, I’d start our by saying, “Look.”

My Servant: This one who responds to others’ needs belongs to God. He works for God as he carries out His earthly tasks. In the United States we have people who work for the various levels of government; the government calls them Civil Servants. When we eat in restaurants, those that wait on us are servers.

Whom I uphold: God stands behind His servant and gives approval of the servant’s actions. The servant takes His direction from the Father. We see people who stand behind their children or their friends when there is strife in their lives.

My soul delights: God finds joy in His Servant. This Servant honors God. Did you ever hear a small child giggle in response to a knock-knock joke? The boy or girl finds joy in hearing the silliness of the play on words.

My Spirit upon Him: God places his inner part of Himself, his persona, into The Servant. Do you find yourself saying something just like one of your parents? When I have done this, I chuckle and think to myself, “I have become my mother.” I also have had the experience of “becoming my father.” My goal in my Christian walk is to say things that God would say. He did this with Jesus. Christ told the disciples, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” (John 6:46, NIV)







____________

* Guideposts Family Concordance © 1982

6 comments:

  1. Great food for thought, thanks so much! I have been meditating more on what being a servant means. I am a work in progress. :)

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen:
    Thank you for your thoughts. I realized quite a while ago that we are all works in progress until such time we get called to enter Heaven and see Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I find the hardest people to serve are those in our family, and those who don't appreciate us. Yet if I'm serving them as unto the Lord, I won't worry about how they treat me in return, will I?

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I had cancer, several people encouraged me with "God isn't done with you yet." That prompted me to meditate on God's perfect plan for me--thy will be done, Lord. Yes, all of us are His wonderful works in progress.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jean:
    Thank you for sharing this personal reflection. We are His workmanship and under His control. Thanks again for your wonderful outlook.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jeanette:
    Thank you for your insightful thought. I fully understand your thinking. When God tells us to do something, aren't we supposed to do it for Him? I have had several experiences when I did something to help someone close to us only to feel used, abused and unappreciated. But this one person kept asking. And we kept doing. It must have been a God-thing.

    ReplyDelete

I would be honored to hear what you think about this.

February Reflections

  Getting Some Repair Work Done We had to have some work done to our bathroom. Our shower and bathtub had been out of commission f...