Think of yourselves the way. Christ Jesus thought of himself.Philippians. 2:5 (Msg)
Service starts in your mind.
To be a servant requires a mental shift, a change in your attitudes. God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements. Real servants serve God with a mindset of five attitudes.
Servants think more about others than about themselves. Servants focus on others, not themselves. This is true humility: not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less. They are self-forgetful. Paul said, "Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." This is what it means to "lose your life" forgetting yourself in service to others. When we stop focusing on our own needs, we become aware of the needs around us.
Real servants don't try to use God for their purposes. They let God use them for his purposes.You can't be a servant if you're full of yourself. It's only when we forget ourselves that we do the things that deserve to be remembered.Thinking like a servant is difficult because it challenges the basic problem of my life: I am, by nature, selfish. I think most about me. That's why humility is a daily struggle, a lesson I must relearn over and over. The opportunity to be a servant confronts me dozens of times a day, in which I'm given the choice to decide between meeting my needs or the needs of others. Self-denial is the core of servanthood.We can measure our servant's heart by how we respond when others treat us like servants.
Servants think like stewards, not owners. Servants remember that God owns it all. In the Bible, a steward was a servant entrusted to manage an estate.
Servanthood and stewardship go together, since God expects us to be trustworthy in both. To become a real servant you are going to have to settle the issue of money in your life. The Bible is very clear: God uses money to test your faithfulness as a servant. That is why Jesus talked more about money than he did about either heaven or hell. He said, "If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" Servants think about their work, not what others are doing. They don't compare, criticize, or compete with other servants or ministries. They're too busy doing the work God has given them.Competition between God's servants is illogical for many reasons: We're all on the same team; our goal is to make God look good, not ourselves; we've been given different assignments; and we're all uniquely shaped. Paul said, "We will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original." Servants base their identity in Christ. Because they remember they are loved and accepted by grace, servants don't have to prove their worth.
If you're going to be a servant, you must settle your identity in Christ. Only secure people can serve. Insecure people are always worrying about how they appear to others. They fear exposure of their weaknesses and hide beneath layers of protective pride and pretensions. The more insecure you are, the more you will want people to serve you, and the more you will need their approval.
--To be a servant I must think like a servant.
Verse to Remember: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."
Philippians 2:5 (NIV)