Are You a Servant or a Servaholic?

Do you have a servant’s heart?

Don’t be too quick to answer YES! Consider this: Do you become resentful or impatient when asked to perform a service for others? Do you feel that any of the required tasks are beneath your dignity? Are you reluctant to perform small favors for those outside of your church family? Will you want credit or recognition for each task you perform? If so you may be more of a servaholic than a servant-leader.

God’s Word calls us right into the tension between self-love and self-denial. Jesus assumes that we love and care for ourselves to some degree (Matthew 22:39) but he also calls us to radically die to our own desires (Matthew 16:24).

How are we to navigate this paradox? To what degree should we care for ourselves—and why is it important to do so? Can we live out Jesus’ call to self-denial while also living a healthy, balanced life? The tension between self-love and self-denial is not easy to sort out. How do you care for yourself—body and soul—in God-honoring ways? What do you see as the right balance between self-love and self-denial?

The bottom line in servant leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves, but how far we advance others. We must do the things that God would have us do. This can only be achieved INTENTIONALLY.

Serve joyfully, not out of compulsion or for a desire to be significant in the eyes of others. Serve as Jesus would have you serve.   

An award-winning writer and frequent conference speaker, Shirley Raye Redmond is the author of three inspirational novels, as well as two dozen children’s books, including LEWIS & CLARK: A PRAIRIE DOG FOR THE PRESIDENT (Random House), which was a Children’s Book of the Month Club selection. Her book, Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Women of God will be released by Harvest House in January. Touch bases at shirleyrayeredmond.com or Facebook