A Doormat for Jesus?

We've all felt like a doormat from time to time, and it's not fun. People walking all over you unconcerned for your feelings, hardly noticing you, taking you for granted, etc. But what if God CALLS you to be a Doormat for Him?

Paul said in 2 Corintians 12:15, "So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well."

Oswald Chambers writes today, "Paul said he knew how to be a "doormat" without resenting it, because the mainspring of hsi life was devotion to Jesus." Just before this he states a painful truth, even for us in ministry, "Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve."

Can ministry be our own end? If it is stressing us out and wearing us out, it probably is. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If our burden is heavy, we may be tossing extra stuff on our back that He hasn't put there.

We all have our "CAUSES" that we live for, and most always they are worthy and noble and spiritual and godly and GOOD, but consider Oswald's challenge, "The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause." My cause must only be fellowship with Jesus, and out of that will flow the ministy. I used to think ministry would draw me into fellowship with Jesus, but in reality it drove me away from Him!

My reading in the Message this morning brought it together:

Calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the drivers seat: I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how.... Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?" (Mark 8)

Set aside the list of "TO DO's" and ask Jesus, what would YOU like me to do today. He may tell you to take a day off. He may tell you to skip e-mail for a day. He may tell you to call or write someone who isn't on your list. He ask you to take a walk and just be with Him for a bit, there is something He wants to show you. He may just want you to pause long enough to feel His unconditional love for you. Then he might say, "Now, get back to work, but never let it be about the work. It's about me."

And when you feel like a doormat, consider these words from Oswald yesterday, "When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from other can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake."

Go ahead, walk all over me... I'm walking with Jesus, so it's all good.