Family

Motherhood Lessons from Matthew {Part 4} Serving Others or Self?

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A while back when I was doing my Bible reading with the kids, we read some in Matthew. We were reading the verses where it talks about how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. It said that she was sick and when Jesus came he healed her.

The next part is what struck me…it said that once she was healed, she immediately got up and began serving Him. Wow!

This got me to thinking…how many times do I ask God to answer prayer…to heal illness, to fix a situation, to change me, etc…and then once God answers I respond with selfishness.

For example, maybe I am sick and I pray for the Lord to help me get to feeling better. He answers prayer and the next day I am feeling better. But instead of doing as Peter’s mother-in-law did, I have the mindset of “Oh…I’m feeling better. Good! Now I can do all these things that “I” wanted to do.” I see answered prayer as a license to feed “self”..Yuck!

I was very convicted with Peter’s mother-in-laws’ response to Jesus touch on her life. I want to be like that.

When God answers prayer, provides the health, time, finances, etc. that are needed, I want to respond with a mindset of how I can then turn around and serve others…how can I serve the “least of these” (meaning my own husband and children first, then others)? Too many times I am so grateful for answered prayer simply because of what “I” want.

Lord, help me to focus on others and how I can serve them. When you bless me with answered prayer, help me not to be selfish but to look for ways to serve and give to others out of my gratitude to You. Amen.