And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35
Now the only way you can serve God on Earth is by serving others.~Rick Warren
Serving is the next personality trait that you may have been born with. Some people gravitate to helping others. The interesting fact about serving is we all should be serving each other with the personality traits we have, so serving is all-inclusive. The topic here is that some people are born with this type of personality naturally to serve others. A leader is a glorified servant; he develops a team by leading with example and creating an environment of productivity. Jesus is the best example of the gift of eternal life He provided by dying on the cross and serving us by giving His very life. To serve means to let go of ego and lower you to be an angel to someone in need. Some people have a natural way to do this; they are the ones behind the scenes that make a leader look good. A great leader will acknowledge this type of person and will be humble enough to say that they could not have done it without them. There are three traits of a natural servant and these all should be part of a personality of a leader.
Trait number one is they are hard workers. I am part of a serving church and it never ceases to amaze me how many natural servants I run across. They are the ones that run and get the broom before you even have the thought of going to find it to clean up a mess that might have happened. Last week I was standing in what we call the spine of the church, which is the main hallway, where one of the lights blew out and rained glass down close to where I was standing. While I was thanking God that I was not standing under that light because I have a baldhead; before I knew it someone had grabbed a broom and dustpan and was cleaning it up. Then because it was carpet, someone appeared with a mini vacuum cleaner. I thought that was awesome.
The next trait of a servant is their humility. A true servant never lets their ego show or even allows it to be part of their world. When someone recognizes them for their efforts they don’t go into a long speech about what they did, they just say thank you and move on. They don’t do that false “spiritual” speech and say it was God, not me.” Humility is being in control of your ego. Humility says you don’t want special thanks, you are happy about what you have done and it brings you pleasure in doing it. I always say that love and respect are the aspects of honor. Proverbs 15 says that humility comes before honor. You can only have love and respect for others if you are humble, it’s so very true.
The last trait of a servant is they are blessed. They are blessed because the blessing comes in the giving as Jesus points out through Paul in the above verse. If all you do is receive, receive, receive, then that is a short-lived satisfaction. You always want more and more. A servant gives because they know the longest lasting satisfaction comes from giving. A servant gives of their time, money, themselves. They don’t want the recognition and sometimes never get it.
We all should aspire to being a servant, like I have said though we all can be a servant in one form or the other, but we all don’t have the natural trait in us to do it consistently without effort. A true servant is a hard worker, is humble, and is always, always, blessed to give.
How are you serving others in your life, have you been a game changer for someone?
© [David Howard], [David’s Body Temple], 2011-2015.
David's Body Temple 