Christian Service and Its Motivation - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45 NKJV

Christian Service and Its Motivation
I would ask you to ponder deeply that verse which I have written: the Son of Man is come to serve and to give. This is a divine reality. Jesus came into this world to meet our need, to serve us in all that in which we need His precious service, and to give His life a ransom for many; to serve us by bearing our sins in His own body on the tree and working out a full and an eternal salvation. He did not come to get, did not come to take, He did not come to be ministered to, did not come to be gazed at; He came to be used. And therefore, while the soul that is exercised may be raising this harassing question, "What can I do for the Lord?" the answer is, "You must pause and see and believe what the Lord has done for you. You must stand still and see the salvation of God."

Remember those words of divine and evangelistic sweetness: "To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). You can never intelligently or properly serve Christ until you know and believe how He has served you. You must cease your restless doings, and rest in a divinely accomplished work. Then, but not until then, will you be able to start on a career of Christian service.

It is most necessary for all anxious souls to understand that all true Christian service begins with the possession of eternal life, and is rendered in the power of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Spirit, in the light and on the authority of holy Scripture. This is the divine idea of Christian work and service.

-- C. H. Mackintosh

May the mind of Christ my Savior

Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling

All I do and say.

-- K. B. Wilkinson