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When you love others, do you find it hard to sit still and do nothing for them when they're nearby? I do. Recently I was reminded of this when I went home to visit my parents. For many years, they have been strong and self-sufficient. They have served and and ministered to others, as well as to me, as long as I can remember.

As my parents have grown older, they have become more and more physically inactive. Mother can no longer walk or see well. Daddy has difficulty keeping his balance and has become quite deaf. He can no longer hike the mountain with me or talk on the telephone.

While I mourn the loss of their physical strength and share their frustration over the fullness of inner life that is bound in the weakness of an outer body, I derive great joy and personal pleasure in being able, at long last, to do something for them. I love to bake them a homemade apple pie or fix a sumptuous pot roast with all the trimmings for Sunday lunch. I love to throw an extra log on the fire for Mother or run to get a requested book for Daddy. I love doing those little things that say, I love you!

It stands to reason that we want to do something for those that we love. Do you love Jesus—really love Him?

What we do for Jesus doesn't have to be something big. The important thing is how we do it. As Paul urged the Colossians, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

Carved into the frame of the window over my kitchen sink—the same thing that is carved into a sign over my mother's kitchen sink—is this reminder: DIVINE SERVICE WILL BE RENDERED HERE THREE TIMES DAILY. The words help me remember that feeding my family and serving them, when done as unto the Lord, is divine service.

Regardless of the divine service we find to do for Christ, our mission is the same: to go into the world and make disciples. And that world, as author and Bible teacher Jill Briscoe has pointed out, is not necessarily Africa or Asia but the world between our own two feet. Our mission involves telling others who Jesus is and what He has done for them.

In our work and in our mission we are motivated, not by a sense of duty, not by our pride or privileges, but by the same revival fire that burned within Peter and Paul and the other disciples: we have seen the Lord, and we work for Him simply because we love Him!

Adapted from Anne's latest book, I Saw the Lord: A Wake-up Call for Your Heart (Zondervan, 2006). Used by permission. Visit Anne at www.angelministries.org.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine.
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