A J-BAR PRAYER
Father, we come before you now on bended knee, hoping to honor you with our integrity. Please make our judgement as sound as steel and be our hands upon the wheel. Give us strength and vigilance on our routes and help us to serve others, as You did, Lord, without any doubts. Remind us to be gentle, humble and kind, and help us when we stumble in body and mind. Please shelter our families whilst we are away and bring us safely back to them at the end of this day.
There is nobody who we are too good to serve
Has anyone ever done something amazing for you that you don’t deserve? Jesus taught us that “No greater love hath man than this: That he lay down his life for another” (John 15:13). With this in mind, does it change your answer? The simple fact is that we are given the opportunity to live where and how we do, by the sacrifices of others – sacrifices of our parents, the lives of soldiers, police officers, firefighters, teachers, wives and husbands . . . but mostly because of the sacrifice of God. Yahweh (IAOE) came to us as a man, in the form of Jesus Christ, “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 6:3-4)
One of our most treasured core values is Servanthood. Servanthood is defined as: “a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant; or, a person employed in the service of a government (Kingdom); or lastly, a devoted and helpful follower or supporter.” I think that most people think of the first definition when they hear the word “servant”, but the other two can add so much depth to our understanding – we who consider ourselves servants of God, can see that we serve Him as members of His Household, as employees in the service of His Kingdom and are devoted and helpful followers and supporters.
We, at J-Bar, have a common belief that we are here to serve God, our families, each other, the community and lastly ourselves. We treasure the opportunity to serve others as we have been served in this life. We strive to be servant leaders, selfless and in the image of our greatest teacher and servant leader, Jesus Christ.
Father John Stott put it like this: “The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is only safe in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.”
St. Augustine said: “Selflessness is not thinking less of one’s self . . . rather, it is thinking of one’s self less. Humility is what makes Angels of men and pride is what turned Angels into demons.”
We are called to be humble and kind, as our prayer states. We are called to be leaders of the world around us, and we do that first by serving.
We are J-Bar — we are blessed beyond measure. We love — we are thankful beyond measure. We serve, and in so doing become the leaders that God wants us to be.
