"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43

In reading the New Testament, you may get the feeling at times that the kingdom of God is a topsy-turvy thing. It takes our human ideas and turns them upside down. God seems to have a very special kind of algebra in which every human plus becomes a minus and every human minus a plus.

For example, in the minds of many, greatness consists of power or wealth or fame. A great person is one who controls the affairs of people or nations, leads victorious armies, builds up a great fortune, displays scientific genius, or writes enduring literature.

But these human notions are exactly the opposite of God's standard of greatness. What must we do to measure up to the divine standard? We must become servants. That may seem strange, but it's exactly what our Lord says: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." And it all fits. For Christ Himself "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

PRAYER: Holy Spirit, raise up faithful servants of Christ who glorify His name in all the earth; for Jesus' sake. Amen.

(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)

Today's Bible Readings: Psalms 147-148    1 Corinthians 4

To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"