There are many times that I've volunteered for an event and wanted to gain praise for it. I would post pictures of me helping with an expectation of a compliment like, "Oh look at her, she does so much for this community." I still find myself struggling with serving others and knowing that me serving is for God, not for myself. I think we find ourselves wanting that gratification from others to fill ourselves with their praises; however, that is not the case. We should not be looking to fuel our lives with gratification from others. Instead, we should be looking to act more like Jesus. If we look at Jesus, He served His disciples without wanting any gratification.
Let's look at John 13:1-17. Jesus among all others gets up to wash the feet of His disciples (5). The disciples even question why He is washing their feet. When Peter was approached by Jesus, he questions Jesus and tells Him that He is not going to wash his feet (usually in biblical times, slaves would be the one who would wash the feet of guests). This could explain why Peter was so appalled at Jesus washing his feet. However, Jesus replies, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand" (7). Now this is important because the washing of the feet happened during Jesus' last moments before He would depart from the world and Him saying these words would mean something even greater. He shared this to reveal even more the love and humility of God.
Before you can serve others, you need to first understand how much we've been served.
"Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (8). He washes the feet of the disciples in order to share the beauty of understanding love and self-sacrifice rather than pride. Unless you accept and understand this spirit of love and humility of Christ, you will not be fully cleaned by His power. This enables you to further understand how Jesus saw Himself as a servant and how He wants you to see yourself as one too. We are not deserving of Him washing our feet, but He does. He spent his last "hour" serving by washing His disciple’s feet. He served us by dying on the cross, and He continues to serve us through loving us unconditionally. He came to serve us, and because He did, we should serve Him by serving others. However, while serving, we should not think of ourselves as above those we are serving nor feel prideful. It should not be for gratification—you should be able to serve without seeking affirmation. Once you start thinking that serving is for gratification, your heart becomes stale. You start serving without love and begin focusing on whether or not others are watching you. You start to blur the real reason for serving.
Serving without love or purpose is like not serving at all. This is why we should aim to be more like Jesus was with His disciples. We should never take advantage of those we serve for self-gratification. Jesus says in verse 16, “very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” Pride should not overcast the purpose of serving, but rather we must understand that we aren't in control and own nothing. The question then is: will we choose to serve in love? We have full control over that decision. However, if we do not choose to serve God in love, then we will be serving our own pride and senses. Jesus talked about being a messenger, and if humility and love aren't in us, then we are not able to fully be messengers of God.
So, go out and love others and serve, not for yourself, but for your own relationship with God. No one needs to come in between that relationship. God sees you serving, and that should be enough.
He finds those whose feet are dirty and washes them. We must go out and do the same, serving others, but serving for His glory in humility and love.
