Thankful To Serve

I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day,

2 Timothy 1:3

Fourteen-year-old Tony Hicks shot and killed twenty-year-old Tariq Khamisa. Tariq’s father forgave Tony’s family, forgave Tony himself, and then started the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, through which he has spoken to over half a million young people about the true costs of violence. He is also trying to get Tony, who never had a father, released from his life-sentence conviction so he can come to work at the foundation named for the young man he killed—something Tony is eager to do. Tony says, “I had a man forgive me for taking the life of his son.”

Willing to serve as a result of being forgiven is not a strange scenario to Christians. The apostle Paul is our prime example: “I thank God, whom I serve. ” He never got over the fact that the One he persecuted called him to be His chief apostle. Every Christian is in the same place: forgiven by God and called into His service. Our willingness to serve is a good indication of how much we value our forgiveness.

If you see an opportunity to serve, try looking at it as Paul did: as a grateful response to the God who has forgiven all your sins.

The most holy service that we can render to God is to be employed in praising His name.

JOHN CALVIN