If God is calling you and I to serve others how do we do that? How do we go out to reach people and show them the love of God?

I would argue that it starts with Shalom and a pursuit of Holiness.

Shalom in the Bible is not simply peace. Peace is the partly the absence of striving but Shalom is the absence of striving and completeness or soundness. It is safety, rest, favor, prosperity, happy, friendly, well, wholly. Shalom is the goal we are all after.

It is more than simply not fighting but it is living in total soundness. This means whether there is peace around you or not you are in a state of rest and wholeness. In order to go after those who are in need and love them, we need to be at peace with God and at peace with ourselves. We need Shalom!

Holiness in a basic understanding is being set apart. We need to not only be set apart but to walk in that set-apartness. We cannot hold onto the things that drag us down. If we are going to actively seek others and their good, we need to actively seek God and to be holy like Him.

How can we expect to go and serve others if we are holding onto other things in our life? Maybe it is just our desires, our plans, our wants. Maybe it is sin. Maybe there are sins in our life that we hold onto and that stops us from being free enough to go and love someone else.

This is short but that is because sometimes less is more. Sometimes it is better to go the Blaise Pascal way and let people come to the conclusion on their own, so they might be more thoroughly convinced. Today I would just ask two simple questions.

Do you have Shalom with God?

Do you pursue Holiness?

 

Just a thought,

Mike