Luke 1:67-80
"His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 'Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people...' To show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days."
This scripture passage gives us some basic understanding of serving God. What is the purpose of God's redemption and salvation? Verse 75 says that we are to come before God all our life with no fear, and to serve Him with holiness and righteousness. God saved us so that we can serve Him, but what does it mean to serve? "All our days" means our whole life, and our life should indeed be a ministry. Not only serving inside the church, but our daily life should be our ministry. Saint Francis is God's mighty servant back in the Middle Ages. He was so good at preaching that when he preached, even dogs and cats would stop and listen. One time he brought his disciples out to preach, and the disciples were eager to learn from him, but he walked around with them and then returned to where they lived. His disciples asked him that if they were out to preach, why he didn't say a word? Saint Francis said he was done preaching, because going out and walking around was the best way to preach.
Our life should be a ministry and the best sermon. Ministry is not just an outward formality, but it's our heart and our entire life. The important thing is not what we do, but it's the life within us. Do we have a clean life? God said we ought to cleanse ourselves and stay away from the dishonorable, so that we will become "an instrument for noble purposes." The key is not the instrument itself, but rather whether it is clean. God only uses clean instruments, so even if the instruments are made of gold and silver but they are filthy, God still cannot use them. We must come before God all our life to serve Him with holiness and righteousness, to serve in our daily life and to serve before God. Also, in the Old Testament time, coming before God meant being inside the temple. Therefore, we need to serve in our daily life, and we also need to serve in God's house, the church, in order to completely satisfy God. Are you God's servant? May God help us, so that starting today we will make our best effort to serve Him, because such is God's will.
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