Serve faithfully and be grateful

By The NewsDay | Jul. 20, 2013 | 4 Min read

Have you ever considered on what premise your relationship with Jesus is anchored?

Sermon of the Week with Pastor Erasmus Makarimayi

You have to check if you really love Him and are genuine in worshipping Him.

Human material need should not be the foundation for looking for Jesus, but a deeper and inner hunger for fellowship, communion and fulfilment. Jesus is not a mere object that dispenses goodies.

Stay with Him, remain in the relationship and continue fellowshipping with Him perchance He will consider goodies for you.

Christians pray and fast seeking answers and things from God. Many go to the mountains to fast to petition God to grant them certain needs, but few go back to the mountains to pray and fast as a thanksgiving.

People part with money and other material things sowing for marriage, houses and cars. God honours the seed and we rarely hear the same people returning to thank God with their substance.

I receive prayer requests from people that want God to do certain things in their lives, but I don’t receive requests from people that want me to help them praise and worship God for answering their prayers.

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Because we are busy pursuing needs, we never take time to be grateful for what we get. We need to learn to be thankful. Many years ago, a certain man came to me looking for money to pay rent.

I didn’t have the money for the rent, but gave him bus fare and money for food. He was so disappointed that he didn’t appreciate what I gave him.

All he wanted was rent money. He was so fearful of the landlady and the dread of being evicted. He had walked close to 20 kilometres to our office. The pain of walking back home and sleeping on an empty stomach was not his concern.

While you aim higher you need to pause and reflect on the blessings that the Lord has poured on you this far.

One time Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one gave Him due praise and worship. Luke 17:15-17 records, “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” Measure yourself and see for yourself where you fit in. As you celebrate and throw parties for the accomplishment, remember the giver. Glorify and exalt God, the source of your celebration.

As you enter into a relationship with Jesus, let it primarily be for fellowship and communion and secondarily the material things He will give you. Reverence Him with adoration, praise and worship. Let it be His concern to find ways to meet your needs.

The story of the feeding of the 4 000 illustrates this. Matthew 15:32 reads, “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”

It is important to note that the people continued. Three days of listening to Jesus is not mean time. Jesus was moved by compassion and had to see to it that they were fed. You have to continue with Jesus and it should be His duty to find means of meeting your needs.

Continue to faithfully serve The Lord. A Shunammite woman whose eyes were not fixed on the benefits of serving God continued to minister to Elisha until it was the prophet’s burden to search what her needs were. 2 Kings 4:13 says, “And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee?

wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.” While there are rewards and benefits for serving God, let’s instead fix our eyes on continuing in the faith.

A relationship with God is a continuous and growing fellowship. Continue in communion with Him. Along the way, He will drop you a car, house, husband/wife, contract, employment and many other human needs. He knows you have needs.

Don’t be so preoccupied with what has to be done at the expense of not noticing what has been achieved. If you are driven by material needs, chances are that you will dump the relationship after your needs are met. Love Him, talk to Him, listen to Him and continue in the faith. You are going somewhere.

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