Several years ago a close friend spoke a word of wisdom into my life and those words have blessed me to this very day. He said to me if I aspired to be great in God, I should serve a great man (servant) of God. To this very date, not only do I practice this, but I do all I can to share this thought with anyone who will listen and heed.
Note these persons in the scripture: Abraham served Melchizedek; Joshua served Moses; David served Saul (who was great before he fell); Elisha served Elijah; Peter served Jesus; Timothy served Paul, even Naomi served Ruth. I am sure you can think of others.
The reason why I believe God blesses and honors those who serve others is because: (1) in order to truly serve and follow someone, you must be humble and obedient. The scripture clearly tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and in due time He will exalt us. (2) Serving someone great allows you to learn from them and even build upon their legacy and successes. If you follow mediocrity, you are destined to only repeat the mistakes and poor practices you see and have influenced you. Have you ever noticed people who are perennially weak or unstable seem to be drawn to one another? The saying is something like, “…birds of a feather flock together”. It only makes sense if you want to be strong, find yourself in the company of strong people!
A third truth is true leaders are always looking to disciple others and up-build them. Great leaders are not insecure. They are not afraid to instruct, empower and make those around them great. Great leaders in God understand that He is the one that made them who they are and they are not conceited nor do they feel threatened by others. There is always more of God to spread around!
Unfortunately the disciples had a misconceived notion of greatness. On more than one occasion (Matthew chapters 20 and 23) and Luke (chapter 22) Jesus explained to them what true greatness is / was – serving others. On another occasion the mother of James and John asked Jesus to place her sons on Jesus’ left and right hand (Mathew 20 and Mark 10). Obviously she had no idea had Jesus granted her request; her sons would have taken the place of the thieves.
You may ask, “How can I serve someone great?” First of all seek God to reveal to you who you should be following – don’t trust your feelings or emotions. Secondly, look at the person’s track record. Do they measure up to what Paul described (see I Timothy 3) or a Titus 2 woman? Why is it we let weak, disgruntled, disagreeable or bitter people influence us? Stop and ask yourself, is the person advising me, or influencing me really helping me? Have they accomplished anything that is noteworthy?
Next, find a way to show them support; perhaps verbally. Call them on the telephone occasionally and tell them that you appreciate them. Drop them an email or text with words of encouragement. Tell them they are doing a good job! Secondly, pray for them. You don’t even need to ask them if they need anything, just pray for them. Ask God to cover them, keep them healthy, bless them financially, bless their family, extend their life, and allow their dreams to come to fruition.
Then, go the extra step. Ask God to bless you to make their job easier; ask God to bless you to better serve that person. Some may call this brown-nosing or kissing-up. To those persons I would simply ignore because in all probability, they have not accomplished anything. However, if I were to respond, I would ask: was Abraham kissing up to Melchizedek? Was Joshua brown-nosing Moses? Was David kissing up to Saul? Was Elisha brown nosing Elijah? I think not – they were merely serving. Just as Jesus served His Father, if we are to be great, we must serve someone great!