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When You’ve Started Resenting a Serving Role · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Track 1: Karen had a role in her church that most people would be
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  glad to have, director of care and worship planning at the
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  church she'd been a part of since she was a kid. She loved
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  it. So when she started sensing that God wanted her to step out
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  of it, she ignored it. For over a year, she kept serving and
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  kept pushing the feeling down. Leaving made no sense, and the
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  pull wasn't going away. God was asking her to let go of
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  something she didn't want to let go of. We'll come back to what
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  Karen did, but first,
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  welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Lachey.
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  People have come to me and told me they needed to step out of
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  something they'd been doing for us. I let them go, and I didn't
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  try to make them feel guilty, or at least I tried not to. I don't
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  want to pile on any guilt, and here's what I did do every time.
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  I prayed that they'd stay close to God. That's where my concern
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  goes with a worn-out yes, those that get tired of what they're
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  doing or want to quit. The schedule fills back in, and the
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  person is the part that I pray about. Here's why. When serving
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  starts to feel like something you resent, the resentment
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  rarely stays put in the place you found it. It gets into your
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  prayer life. It rides along with you into the service on Sunday.
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  It's because you're going to go on to the service on Sunday. You
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  start to cool off toward Christ Himself eventually over a role,
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  maybe you outgrew, and you kept doing it anyway. You said yes to
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  something a few years ago. A ministry role or a volunteer
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  slot. You were willing then, and you meant it.
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  Jesus said something about why He came. Matthew 28: "For even
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  the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and
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  to give His life as a ransom for many." James and John's mother
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  has just asked Jesus to put her two boys in the places of honor.
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  The other ten hear about it, and they're indignant.
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  what the rulers of this world throw their weight around, and
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  among them it's going to look different. Whoever wants to be a
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  leader has to be a servant. Then verse 28: "He makes himself the
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  example and gives them the word ransom, which was the price you
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  paid to buy a slave out of somebody's hands." You put a
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  price tag on His own serving. Now go back six verses. When
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  those two said they wanted the thrones, Jesus asked them
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  whether they could drink His cup. And He told them, "You don't
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  know what you're asking." He said that to people who were
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  eager. They had no idea what they were signing up for, and
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  Jesus told them so. So the serving was always going to cost
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  you. That's in the design of it, and Jesus announced it to the
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  first volunteers, which means the resistance you're feeling
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  right now settles nothing by itself. A yes can be costly and
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  still be something you're called to. clears out the feeling and
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  leaves you with a better question, which is whether this
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  is still the assignment, or whether God is asking to take it
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  back. Scripture has a case of it going the second way. The church
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  had grown, and the widows getting food were being
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  overlooked. So the apostles called everybody together and
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  said they should be spending their time teaching the word of
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  God and not running a food program. Look at what they did
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  next. "They told the church to pick out seven men full of the
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  Spirit and wisdom. Then they handed the whole thing over. The
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  widows kept getting fed. The apostles released a serving role,
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  and the work never stopped." That's your test, and it's
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  better than a feeling. A release that comes from God arrives with
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  your hands open and somebody else's hands ready. Walking off
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  leaves a hole where people used to get served, and somebody else,
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  hopefully, is able to step in. So, go ask Him which one this is.
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  Ask whether this is still your yes, or whether He's releasing
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  you from it. Both of those answers come from Him, and
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  either one is obedience. But just remember this: you still
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  need to be serving somewhere. God never lets us off the hook
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  just to go home and do nothing. Eventually, Karen stopped
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  arguing and told her leader she was stepping down. She braced
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  for guilt. Instead, one of her elders gave her a phrase for
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  what she had been feeling. He called it a "spirit of release."
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  That changed how she saw it.
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  as God moving her on, freeing her hands for what she had next.
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  She left a role she loved, and she left it as an act of
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  obedience. hands and let God take it back. Notice how long
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  she went without saying it: over a year of pushing the feeling
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  down while she kept serving. And when she finally said it out
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  loud, the guilt that she'd been braced for never showed up. An
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  elder handled her a better word for it instead. She said,
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  "Here's today's challenge: write down the role and the date you
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  said yes to it. Then write one line about what you were hoping
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  for when you took it. Then take it to God this week and ask Him:
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  'Is this still mine? Or are you taking it back?' And then give
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  Him more than one day to answer. Let Him lead you and guide you.
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  And whichever way it goes, take it to your leaders before you
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  take it to your friends. If He's releasing you to go, go tell the
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  person who can hand it to somebody else. Father, your son
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  told eager men that they had no idea what they were asking. And
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  then he went and paid the price himself. Thank you that you
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  never hid what serving would cost. For everybody listening
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  who has been grinding through a "yes" they gave years ago, show
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  them whether it's still theirs. Keep their love for you from
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  cooling over a job that was only ever meant to last a while. In
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  Jesus' name. Amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has
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  been an encouragement to you, would you take a minute and
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  leave a rating and review? You can do that on Apple Podcasts or
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  at
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  dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new . The link's in the show notes.
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  It helps more people find these devotions and it only takes a
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  moment. I'd be so grateful. Thanks for joining me on Daily
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  Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the apostles released
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  a serving role and made sure the widows kept eating. Ask God
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  which answer this is and then go tell your leaders. Come back
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  next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in
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  God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great day.