“Brother, sister, let me serve you
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I may have the grace
To let you be my servant too”
Richard Gillard’s hymn has a great deal for us to reflect on. During my recent studies I have been looking at Christian leadership and how it is based in humility. As Christians we are often good at serving others, often to the point where we can feel guilty if we can’t or don’t help others.
Jesus’ ministry is full of examples of his humble service to others, including washing his disciples’ feet and teaching them to serve others. However, Jesus also has the grace to let others serve him. A woman anoints his feet prior to the resurrection, Martha serves him as does Peter’s mother-in-law.
How good are we at letting others serve us? How easy do we find it to sit back and let others do something instead of us? Many of us find this much more difficult than serving others – yet Jesus does it and we are also encouraged to gracefully let others serve us as we serve them.
Gracious God,
You love us with a steadfast love
Everything we have and everything we are is a gift from you
You graciously call us to be your children
You ask us to love each other as you love us
Without restriction
This gives us the strength to serve others
Give us the wisdom to remember that others wish to serve us too
The grace to step back and let them show their love for us
By serving us
As we also serve them in love
Amen
You can download this Prayer for the Week here
Prayers for February written by Revd Claire Rawlinson
Picture: photo by Adrià Crehuet Cano on Unsplash
