Currently serving as the Area Training Officer for OM’s Catalytic Ministries, Shirley Turner has been with OM since 2012. Deeply convinced that each person is made in the image of God, she loves to both learn about people and their cultures and keep her eyes open to how God reveals Himself both to and through people and cultures. Primarily based in Zambia, Shirley served for a short time in Germany and has been active in trainings and serving in more than 30 countries around the OM world.

You can’t give what you don’t have. It’s a familiar phrase and there is a list of things we typically ascribe to it.

Love. If we don’t allow God’s love to embrace us, fill us and heal us, genuinely loving those around us falls short.

Hope. If our hearts are hopeless, if we have not experienced the hope that anchors our souls, minds and lives, the hope we may try to offer others will likely seem hollow.

Forgiveness. If we have not received God’s forgiveness in our own lives, extending forgiveness to others may be incomplete.

Comfort. Paul encouraged the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”  (NKJV). Comforting others clearly flows out of the comfort we have received from God.

Service. Wait — that’s not usually on the list. But we are called to be servants, full stop. We serve God and we serve others. Yet if we are servants, how could we ever expect or ask someone else to serve us? Then we wouldn’t be servants ourselves, right? But what if our heart for serving was shaped out of experiencing being served?

Have you ever considered being served by God? When this idea was presented to me, my heart responded very much like Peter’s. “You shall never wash my feet!” I am meant to serve the Lord and serve people; I could never be so presumptuous as to ask Jesus to serve me. Yet, the thought lingered, and as I pondered more and more on who Jesus is and what He did while He walked this earth, it became crystal clear that He served people in so many ways: healing the sick, feeding the hungry, welcoming and blessing children, comforting those who are broken-hearted and washing the disciples’ feet to highlight a few. If He served all those people in all those ways, why am I so resistant to the idea of Christ serving me?

So, how does Jesus want to serve you and me?  Ask Him. Jesus, how do You want to serve me today? He may invite you to cast your cares upon Him, He may carry your burdens for you and give you rest. He may wash away the lies of the world or cancel the condemnation of the enemy. He may set a table before you and feed you with truth or wrap His peace around you like a warm blanket. He may unlock a chain that is keeping you bound and usher you into freedom.

If we don’t ever experience Jesus serving us, how might that affect how we serve Him and how we serve others?

Let’s take a moment to sit with Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper.

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”” – John 13:3-8 (NKJV)

When He comes to you, how will you respond? What will it take for you to allow Jesus to serve you today? How does Jesus want to serve you today?

Sit with Him in the quietness of your heart. Let Him take up the towel, let Him pour the water, what do you sense as the King of Kings grips your tired, dusty feet with His nail-scarred hand and lowers them into the water basin? How does your head and your heart respond as He wipes away the exhaustion, the weariness, the pain and the ache of this life from your feet, bringing refreshment and hope to your being? How is your heart touched as He pours the cool, refreshing water of His Word over your feet, washing away the lies and replacing them with Truth?

Now that Jesus has served you, how does receiving His service affect how you will now serve Him? As you receive the gift of Jesus serving you, what will change about how you see people, how you respond to them and how you serve them?