The word \u2018servant\u2019 can have a negative connotation, but not in this Scripture. Knowing how pressures and people distract us from our God-given purpose, Paul uses the strongest possible language, doulos<\/i> (meaning \u2018slave\u2019 or servant\u2019), to remind us that we\u2019re supposed to be servants to God\u2019s will. Jesus loved people so much that one day He would die to redeem them, but that didn\u2019t stop Him from saying \u2018no\u2019 when He needed to. <\/p>\n
Pleasing and appeasing people to win their approval is never a good idea because it puts someone other than God in the driver\u2019s seat of your life. Instead of letting Himself be side-tracked: <\/p>\n
(1) Jesus refused to let other people\u2019s idea of what was important keep Him from His mission;<\/p>\n
(2) Jesus recognised that doing God\u2019s will was more important than trying to meet everybody else\u2019s expectations; and <\/p>\n
(3) Jesus made prayer and uninterrupted time with His Father a top priority. <\/p>\n
Was that easy? No, and it won\u2019t be easy for you either! Early in His ministry when word spread about His miracles, a \u2018whole town gathered\u2026 and Jesus healed many.\u2019<\/i> (Mark\u00a01:33\u201334\u00a0NIV) The next morning another crowd was waiting on His doorstep! And how Jesus responded this time might surprise you. \u2018While it was still dark, Jesus\u2026 left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him, and when they found Him, they exclaimed: \u201cEveryone is looking for You!\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cLet us go somewhere else\u2026 so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.\u201d\u2019<\/i> (Mark\u00a01:35\u201338\u00a0NIV) <\/p>\n
Jesus was a servant to God\u2019s will, and you must be too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The word \u2018servant\u2019 can have a negative connotation, but not in this Scripture. Knowing how pressures and people distract us from our God-given purpose, Paul uses the strongest possible language, doulos (meaning \u2018slave\u2019 or servant\u2019), to remind us that we\u2019re supposed to be servants to God\u2019s will. Jesus loved people so much that one day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}