Skip to main content

Stop Serving People!



            It seemed simple enough.  God’s people were in the wilderness.  They needed water and God gave Moses a solution; “Gather the people and speak to the rock and before their eyes it will pour out its water” (Numbers 20:8).  Now that seems a little strange, but it had worked before (see Exodus 17:1-7), so Moses gathered the people.  Unfortunately, this is where everything falls apart.

            Moses is tired!  He has been leading these people for forty years and all they have done is complain and gripe about everything.  In fact, we are told that earlier that day “the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.  They quarreled with Moses and said… ‘Why did you bring us to this terrible place?  It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates.  And there is no water to drink!’” (Numbers 20:2-5)

            Forty years of frustration boiled over and Moses turned to the people and yelled, “You people are always complaining. Now listen to me. I will cause water to flow from this rock” (verse 10) and he took his staff, turned around and started beating it against the rock until water started to flow.

            Here is the question to think about:  Have you ever felt like Moses?  You work hard, do your best, give everything you can and people still are not satisfied.  They still complain.  They still want more.  It can be so maddening to serve people.  That, however, is the big problem:  We are not serving people.  We are serving God!  When we get that confused, when we get our eyes in the wrong place, then we have trouble.

            That is what happened to Moses, right?  For one brief moment, he forgot who he was serving.  When he got his eyes off of God and just looked at the people and their performance, he became disappointed and angry and lashed out at them.  Whenever we serve to get people’s performance, thanks or approval, we will always be disappointed and angry.  People will never give us what we need.

            Our service, if done correctly, should not feel like a burden.  If it is making us angry, or weary that is a good indication that we have lost our focus, because serving God should produce things like “Love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).  If service is producing anything else in us, then we can be certain that we are not doing things in or by his Spirit.

            In the end, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:12).  He lost his blessing because he lost his focus and the same thing can happen to us. 

            You can serve people and be disappointed, angry and upset, or you can keep your eyes on God and find his joy, strength and encouragement.

            “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark and Light

            When you look out at the world, what do you see?             Some see nothing but trouble and pain.   They point to things like poverty, crime, problems with drugs and alcohol and marriage break-ups and say that the world is full of sadness and sorrow.   Watch the news for even a half hour and you will get the idea that the world is a dark place.             Others see nothing but good.   They appreciate generous people in their community.   They think about their friends and neighbours and smile.   They marvel at the beauty of sunrises and stars at night.   To them, the world is a bright and wonderful place.             You may be surprised that the Bible supports both of these world views.   On one hand it says things like, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the
1 comment
Read more

New Article: Five Words to Improve Your Relationships

                 In the late 1800s, it was common for railway companies to plant formal gardens beside their stations.   These gardens were filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees.   Sometimes they also featured a kitchen garden growing lettuce, carrots, corn, and potatoes.   Estevan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Garden was once located where Mid-City Plumbing and Heating is today.                The purpose of these gardens was to show what the land could produce.   After hours and sometimes days of riding across the featureless prairies, the railways wanted to show settlers the potential of their new home.   The gardens showed what was possible and they encouraged the settlers to transform their own land and discover its potential too.                Today’s verse acts similarly, in that it challenges us to find the potential in
Post a Comment
Read more

Forgetting What Is Behind

                   Generalizations are helpful because they show a pattern that is normally true. However, they are also dangerous because they ignore the exceptions to the rule.                  Here is my generalization:   It is a quality of the strong to be able to forget the past and move on.   The apostle Paul summarizes this idea when he states, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Too often, we trip over things that are behind us.   We remember and nurse old hurts.   We rehearse mistakes that no one else recalls.   In doing so, we pull the past into the present and allow it to dictate how we feel right now.   In these cases, we would be better off “forgett
Post a Comment
Read more