Please Note: I mixed up yesterday’s and today’s devotions. This one should have been published first. TL
September 13
Monday, on the way home from a hospital visit, I stopped to get grilled nuggets and a fruit cup from Chick-fil-a. The two-lane drive up was packed but going fast because servers were outside taking orders on tablets. When I finished my order and the server handed me back my debit card, I said, “thank you.”
A normal response to “thank you” is usually “you’re welcome.” At least that was what Miss Mannerly taught me as a young girl so many decades ago. Lately, I’ve noticed that “you’re welcome” has been replaced with “no problem” or the “NP” in texting. But not at Chick-fil-a. The servers respond, “my pleasure.” And they do it with a smile.
I had just come from visiting someone in the hospital and I thought about the response, “my pleasure.” It was my pleasure to visit, but as I considered that, I realized that even more so, it was my privilege. Merriam-Webster defines privilege as “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor.
Paul wrote to the Romans that God had granted him the privilege of ministering to the Gentiles. He said it this way, “God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God.” [15:15-16]
Perhaps we could say it this way and not do harm to the Scriptures, “God gave me the privilege to be a minister of Christ Jesus.”
It is a privilege to minister for Christ Jesus. It is a privilege to visit the sick, to pray for others, to bring the Rhema of God’s Word to the hopeless. It is a privilege to walk beside those struggling. Yes, God has granted us the privilege of representing Christ Jesus to this lost world.
