The Joy Of Serving OthersSample

DAY SIX: A Foundation of Joy

Joy will fill your heart when you start serving others and love them with the love of Christ. It is in this unconditional giving of yourself to other people that you find the diminishing of your own selfish desires and a true foundation of joy welling up in your soul. The Bible tells us that Jesus went to the cross willingly, enduring it and despising the shame, for the joy that was set before Him. Now the Lord sits at the right hand of all authority—and offers you the joy and peace that comes from Him.

Only when you are willing to first fight the battle of the mind—where the enemy plants his seeds of disappointment—will you be free to love your neighbor as yourself.

Win the battle of the heart, and you will win the war against the fear of living for others.

We can’t share truth about God’s love with any shred of authenticity until we truly begin living for others—until we begin praying for a heart that loves and serves others, just as God has loved and poured out His life for us.

When we pour our lives out for others, we come into the full joy of the gospel.

Although we are all born, without exception, selfish and self-focused to the core of our beings, God will set doors before us that, if we pray and believe enough to pass through, will lead us to a joyous and blessed life of service to others.

Love God and love your neighbor as yourself—there is no greater commandment.

These devotionals are excerpts from Carter Conlon’s book It’s Time to Pray.