Becoming a Servant for His Glory: A 5-Day Devotional by Dr. Miguel NunezExemplo

DAY 1: You Must “Be” Before You “Do” 

By nature, some of us are more observant than others. One activity that I enjoy is observing human behavior, which leads me to both reflect upon and view through the lens of God's revelation. I have always found it interesting how a child at a very early age struggles with his mother in an attempt to unsuccessfully tie his shoelaces all by himself without her help, repeating this cycle over and over again. He tries to complete this task even though he does not yet possess the fine motor skills to do so. 

Some of this has to do with rebelliousness, autonomy and self-sufficiency, which are big stumbling blocks for us. Other times, however, it has to do with our wanting to do something that matters. Even children do not want to wait to grow up to do those things for which they are not yet qualified to do. 

Impatience has always characterized human beings. And while God never seems to be in a hurry, we have no desire to slow down. But we must "be" before we "do," or we will suffer the consequences.

The context of Acts 6:2-3 is the sudden growth of the Church and its leadership who found it necessary to delegate tasks, as they no longer could continue to do so given their multiple obligations. The task before them was relatively simple: waiting on tables and distributing food among their brethren, which may have ultimately included celebrating the Lord's Supper (something the early Church would frequently do). And yet, for simple tasks such as these, the apostles established certain criteria related to the character of the people who would serve. 

In simple actions such as waiting on tables, we can see exactly how important it is for us "to be before we do." This is one of many examples we find all throughout the Biblical revelation, which we will examine in this devotional during the next few days.