The Servant Who Still Speaks

As we enter this new year, I am reminded that we serve a Saviour who is the reason for all seasons...how I pray that this new year find us more and more HIS servants. Where there's any pride in our hearts, may He remind us to be humble...knowing that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last (Matthew 20:16). How He cherishes the last! May we always remember that anything we have is not of ourselves, but simply gifts from His gracious hand. And may He use us for all those that are last, for HIS glory, and HIS purposes. The world tells us to use our days for ourselves, yet He created us to use them for HIM.

I pray in this new year that where there is loneliness, we readily embrace with warm, caring arms; where there's exhaustion, He give us deeply encouraging words; and where there's poverty, He give us a life-changing concern. The world mocks and looks down at those who are lonely, and downtrodden, and poor. Yet we are not of this world. May we always remember what is truly of value...and hold others' gaze with a twinkle in our eye, a warm smile on our face, and a hand that firmly grasps. May He show us how to give the gift of ourselves, in both word and deed, in reaching out to others...and in so doing, we give of our Lord who was King, yet came as the greatest servant of all.

"I’d like to suggest that we remind ourselves he still comes.

He comes to those as small as Mary’s baby and as poor as a carpenter’s boy.

He comes to those as young as a Nazarene teenager and as forgotten as an unnoticed kid in an obscure village.

He comes to those as busy as the oldest son of a large family, to those as stressed as the leader of restless disciples, to those as tired as one with no pillow for his head.

He comes and gives us the gift of himself.

He still comes. He still speaks."

~excerpted from Christmas Stories, by Max Lucado

"...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ~Matthew 28:20

In this new year, may our lives "speak" of Him in all we do.