How to serve others for God is a call from God as a way of pointing them to God. Whether you are serving others on a mission trip, local ministry, or in your daily job, you can serve God with purpose and intentionality.
How do we serve others in a way that glorifies God and points people to Him?
SERVE OTHERS WITH LOVE.
“If I’ve learned anything from my time in Jacó,” World Racer Tymon explains, “is a smile goes a long way. Learning the barista’s name at the local coffee shop, hearing their story, just simply loving on Him/Her makes a bigger impact than you might realize.”
Serving others with love is the key to reaching a broken and hurting world that does not know Jesus. People are waiting for someone to show up and display the love of Jesus. We need to love others with our actions, not just our words.
In Matthew 28, Jesus called us to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Often, that looks like just showing up and loving people the way Jesus loves them. When you serve others’ needs with love, they experience who Jesus is.
As Devin, one of our World Race: Gap Year missionaries shares, love has been the best way to serve others on her Christian gap year:
“My job here is not to convert every lost soul to my own beliefs. It is not to be strictly religious or shove the Gospel down the throats of different people. It is not to walk around boasting about how my God may triumph over another.
It is to love. To love like Jesus loves. To share the way that He loves not just me, but every single person on this planet. To show how much He loves us. To be His physical hands and feet. To voice His love to others that are oblivious of it.”
SERVE OTHERS WITH JOY.
“It wasn’t until I felt the light breeze from the car window washing against my face and through my hair did I realize how overjoyed I was to be in Guatemala.” Paula shared about arriving in the first country on her World Race route.
I get to serve locals. I get to share the love of God. I get to live in community with five outstanding ladies. I get the opportunity to wake up in a different country and serve a wide variety of communities during a pandemic.”
Serving others with joy shines through your work even when you spend most of your time behind the scenes. While in Costa Rica, God used a painting experience to remind Paula of the impact of serving others with joy.
“A small team of us were given the task to design, sketch, and paint light poles in the community. The thought behind this part of Ocean’s Edge is to bring life and light into a city that is blanketed and blinded by darkness…
At first, I was a little hesitant about sitting in the street painting a pole, but I know God has us here for a reason working with this ministry. It seems so simple but painting light poles are just as important as any other ministry. I get to share the radiating joy received from God through painting light poles.”
Men’s ministry job description
SERVE OTHERS WITH DILIGENCE.
“[W]e are helping around the church by shoveling and bagging dirt to save up for the upcoming rainy season, building doors for the church door frames, and constructing flooring and walls for the upstairs portion of the church.” Victoria reflects about her time on the World Race in the mountains of Costa Rica.
“As I sat with God, staring at the stunning valley before my eyes, the verse came to mind about working for man with excellence, as if working for the Lord.”
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24
3 lessons from the Shunammite woman
Work is one of the most valuable opportunities for ministry we have available to us. Serving others with diligence on a mission trip and choosing to work for the Lord even when others are not around to see is a great way to serve God.
At home, our daily jobs are where we spend a large chunk of our time and where we get to serve others. Whether you have a job in missions and ministry or a for-profit company, you have the opportunity to glorify God in how you work and choose to serve others around you each day.
Serve God by serving others on a mission trip.
Are you ready to love people and serve the world’s needs on a mission trip like these World Racers? We partner with a variety of ministries that address the tangible needs of God’s children around the planet. And as you serve and love them, you will also learn from them. Both your life and theirs will never be the same!
