How do we know a person is a servant of God?
How did the Bible explain a righteous servant in the eyes of God?
If we ask the Bible, a true servant walks with God. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. (Gen.6:9) As a servant, Noah was able to give glory to God because he walked with God and do everything that is according to His will. Walking with God means to walk according to His will.
A true servant of God can easily acquire knowledge, easy to learn and his learning is increasing. (Pro 9:9) Give to a wise one, and he will be still wiser; teach a just one, and he will increase in learning.
A true servant knows what is good, walks in humility before God. (Mic 6:8) No, the LORD has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.
A true servant of God lives according to faith. (Heb 10:38) Now, “the Just shall live by faith. But if he draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” This means, a servant walks, thinks, speaks, plans and acts according to faith. A servant continue to serve God with all honesty and whatever happens, he sticks with his faith, neither will he draws back nor turn away from his faith.
A servant knows the importance of prayers to God. Prayer is one of the priveleges of a servant. Through prayers, we can offer our thanksgiving, praises and glory to God. Most of all, prayers are our way of communication to God, to send our requests and hidden desires of our hearts.
The Bible explains that praying gives a lot of benefits for the servants. (Job 8:5-7) if you would seek earnestly to God and make your prayer to the Almighty; if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and make the dwelling-place of your righteousness blessed. And if your beginning was small, yet your end would greatly increase. The blessings of God will pour His servants, who are upright and ask for Him through prayers.
But the servants know that there are rules and laws concerning God’s ways of answering requests. Not all requests are answered right away. It is not enough that we ask without thinking.
A servant asks through his heart.(Job 33:2-3) Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue has spoken in my mouth, my words shall be from my upright heart, and my lips will clearly speak knowledge.
A servant prays with faith. (Mar 11:24) Therefore I say to you, All things, whatever you ask, praying, believe that you shall receive them, and it will be to you.
A servant asks clearly. (Php 4:6) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Since we know that it is God’s decision when and how all our requests will be given, we patiently wait for them. There is an appropriate time for everything and even our requests are answered in God’s appointed time. (1Jn 5:14-15) And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
What is the most important request that we can ask as a servant of God?
There are many things that we can ask to the Lord. All the daily needs we want are only examples that we can ask to Him. We can also ask Him to shower us with spiritual blessings, to keep our lives and strength, and to hold on with the spirit and faith given to us.
But the most important thing we can ever ask is to pray that our death will be like the death of a righteous one. (Numbers 23:10) Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!
We will all die soon, but we don’t know when and how. All we can do is to pray that when death comes to us, we have already prepared our love ones, and ourselves too and make sure that our death will come like the death of a righteous one.
The law of God says, a servant should die as a righteous one. The righteousness of a servant will be ignored, if he dies as a sinner. (Eze 18:26) When a righteous one turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done, he shall die.
And if he turns away from righteousness and dies as a sinner, his righteousness will no longer be remembered. (Eze 18:24) But when the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked do, shall he live? All his righteousness that he has done shall not be remembered; in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.
As Solomon says, the death of the wicked will be forgotten. This means, if a righteous servant dies as a sinner, his death will be in vain. (Ecc 8:10) And so I saw the wicked buried, and they came and went from the holy place. And they were forgotten in the city, these things that they had done. This is also vanity.
In the Bible, the church of God is an assembly where servants of God were called to be holy, particularly the Apostles and the early Christians. Anyone who went out from there, is like turning away from God’s will.
Apostle Paul advises that we should carefully examine ourselves if we are really holding on to our faith, because it is a must and it is so important that we keep it until the day we die. (1Co 10:12) So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (2Co 13:5) Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?–unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Why is it important that we give value to this request and prayer to God?
First of all, members who were called in the church of God are considered to be blessed because being called is God’s mercy and love. Paul quotes David’s psalm as he discuss how blessed are those whose sins were forgiven. (Rom 4:7-8) ”Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Secondly, all people commit sins and mistakes, and even the righteous servants cannot escape from it. All who were called were set apart and justified because their sins are forgiven. (Rom 8:30) And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them. Like Paul, who was called to do holy things in the church of God. (1 Cor.1:1-2)
If we cannot hold on to our faith, there is a big possibility that we die as a sinner. And this is very frightening to happen, therefore, we should value the importance of living in faith and dying in faith. We live through faith, and we die with our faith.
Let us be reminded that God is characterized as a God who always clean His place. God puts away those who are not righteous. (Psalms 101:6-8) I will approve of those who are faithful to God and will let them live in my palace. Those who are completely honest will be allowed to serve me. No liar will live in my palace; no hypocrite will remain in my presence. Day after day I will destroy the wicked in our land; I will expel all who are evil from the city of the LORD.
God’s law is this, (Psalms 37:38) But the sinners are destroyed together; the end of the wicked is cut off.
What do we need to do now?
Servants will not be lost because they were given a pattern on how to ask or pray, (Mat. 6 : 9 – 13) A servant will only pray for what he needs, like the daily needs, to pray for overcoming the temptations, and to pray for forgiveness and give forgiveness.
We should not be used to saying only what we believe and ask for, but we need to do and perform works so that we can achieve anything that we desire. This means, we need to work to get what we need.
Besides this, we need to get used to giving glory to God like for example attending services to God. (Heb 10:25) Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.
God is always in our midst when we gather together for His name. (Mat 18:20) For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.”
Doubts and lack of faith should not be seen from the servants of God. Trust, belief and hope should be evident from them especially about Jesus’ return. Others who doubt God will say there is no benefit of serving Him. This should not be seen from us. (Mal 3:14) You have said, ‘It’s useless to serve God. What’s the use of doing what he says or of trying to show the LORD Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?
A servant should never be seen worrying about his earthly needs. God will provide for everything we need as long as we are doing our part. Jesus says, (Mat 6:31-33) “So do not start worrying: ‘Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?’ (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.
It is also important that we get used to forgiving someone who did us wrong. As we ask forgiveness from God, we should also make ourselves open for forgiveness. (Mat 6:14-15) ”If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.
Most of all, whatever comes in our lives, we will continue to walk according to the perfect will of God. We will not draw back or turn away from our faith because we know that it is God’s pleasure to see us holding on to our faith. (Job 17:9) The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he who has clean hands adds strength.
What awaits for those who pray and act according to the will of God?
The Bible is clear in saying that if a servant will hold on to his faith until the day he dies, he will surely have a blessed ending. We should all dream of this. (Psa 37:37-40) Notice good people, observe the righteous; peaceful people have descendants, but sinners are completely destroyed, and their descendants are wiped out. The LORD saves the righteous and protects them in times of trouble. He helps them and rescues them; he saves them from the wicked, because they go to him for protection.
Let us all remember that the death of righteous servant is important in the sight of God. (Psalms 116:15) In the sight of the LORD, the death of his faithful ones is valued. Life will only have value if used according to God’s pleasure. It should end also according to God’s will.
We should not fear dead, we prepare for it.
