I began my quest to bring order into my life. Monday’s work papers were headed in capital letters: PUT ORDER INTO YOUR LIFE—BEGINNING THIS WEEK!!
By Thursday my progress was no greater than it had been when the week started. Order eluded me, chased by a growing frustration and resentment at all the interruptions. Tersely I notified a phone-caller—someone who may have been in need, but I didn’t take the time to find out—“I just don’t have time to talk today. I’m trying to get organized.”
Early Friday morning my Master woke me with, “Who do you think you are, ordering your life? You’re My servant. You’ve given yourself to Me. It is I who orders your days and brings order into them.”
It was an old lesson that I needed to relearn. I rose and yielded to Him the order, or lack of it, of my days. Thanking Him for each interruption, I asked only that He make me a fit and useful servant. By 1: 30 that afternoon my house was clean, the laundry finished, and I felt as though I had really ministered over the phone to some who had called that day. I spent two hours in His presence. And, by early evening was ready to leave for a family weekend. The Lord always responds when we practice attitudes of servanthood.
The hardest discipline is learning how to practice these attitudes, discovering the means which will render this mindset a habit. Each morning I try to remind myself that I am His servant. A card placed in my Bible or taped by the mirror in the bathroom can serve as an additional notification, “I, Karen Mains, am a servant of Jesus Christ.”
When I feel the world crowding too close with that certain attitude of wanting, a hungering thing in my heart, then I take a tour of my domain and ask this question: “Whose things are these?” What freedom comes when the answer rises in me: “This is not my house but Yours! These are not my children but Yours! These are all a gift from You! You have given them all to me that they might benefit Your Kingdom. How can I best employ them for Your service?”
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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.
An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
