Servanthood Starts in the Mind

Romans 12:1-3

Wouldn’t you love to live courageously in spite of the odds? Doesn’t it sound exciting to be divinely powerful in day-to-day living? Aren’t you eager to become independently authentic in a day of copycat styles and horrendous peer pressure? Of course!

It all begins in the mind. Let me repeat it one more time: thinking right always precedes acting right. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the renewed mind.

It is really impossible to grasp the concept of serving others—or to carry it out with joy and without fear—until our minds are freed from the world’s mold and transformed by the Lord’s power.

I feel the need to add a warning to my urging. A warning against anyone who might “use” others to accomplish his or her purposes. Be very careful not to do that! How easy it is to encourage servanthood so others might serve us.

That is not the way our Master walked and neither should we.

Servanthood starts in the mind. With a simple prayer of three words: “Change me, Lord.”

We can’t serve others with joy and without fear until our minds are freed from the world's mold.

Charles R. Swindoll Tweet This

Taken from Improving Your Serve by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1981 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

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Accuracy, clarity, and practicality all describe the Bible-teaching ministry of Charles R. Swindoll. Chuck is the chairman of the board at Insight for Living and the chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary. Chuck also serves as the senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, where he is able to do what he loves most—teach the Bible to willing hearts. His focus on practical Bible application has been heard on the Insight for Living radio broadcast since 1979.