Today, we are still in Simon’s house. We saw the healing of his mother-in-law and how we all need healing from Jesus. Today, let’s take a look at her response to Jesus’ healing.

The fever left her, and “immediately she rose and began to serve them.” Her response to the gift of healing is to serve. And she is not serving because she has to; she is serving as a reaction to God moving in her life. In other words, it is service as an act of worship.

So often, we view worship as something we do. We are singing, we are raising our hands, we are bowing down on our knees. But what defines worship is not the act we are undertaking, but the One the act is directed toward. The “guest” in Simon’s house makes her lowly acts of service into worship. It reminds me of what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

We do not serve because God needs our service. God does not “need” anything from us (C.S. Lewis quote incoming!).

“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense his own already. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

When we act in reaction to what God is doing by offering what we are doing back to him, that is worship. It is not what we are giving God out of our supply, but what we are giving back to him out of what he has supplied us with.

Take a moment and think about how you can worship God today by serving. Whether it is working as if you are working for Jesus, or serving someone else, as Jesus told us:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matthew 25:34-40)