Every Christian’s primary job description is to be a servant of the Lord. Paul spoke of this as the “vocation wherewith ye are called” (Ephesians 4:1). What a privilege it is to serve the King of kings! Whatever your career, you have the opportunity to serve God through witnessing to others and striving to advance His kingdom.
Opportunities for service surround us—and sometimes overwhelm us. Even in acts of service for the Lord, we can feel burdened, overworked, and hopeless.
Many times, we want to serve, but we lack the supplies. Paul faced this problem often. Under house arrest in Rome, he wrote to the Philippian church: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12).
On other occasions, we lack the strength to serve. Paul experienced this trouble as well: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
Somehow, even as Paul lacked supplies and strength, he continued serving. How did he sustain hope to persevere through these difficulties? Paul found God’s provisions to be sufficient for his lack. These provisions are available for us as well.
First, we need spiritual provision. God sustains us spiritually through His grace and through His Word. Paul shared how God’s grace supplies our needs to serve: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Acts 20:32 explains how God’s grace is given to us through God’s Word: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
God also provides for our physical needs. Jesus promised, “…your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8). And Philippians 4:19 promises, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Are you overwhelmed in your service for the Lord? God’s hope for the serving is real and sustaining. When we look to Him for grace to continue, we “…faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
