Thursday, January 1, 2009

His Maidservant

I have pride in being Mrs Joe B. Arnold. I am so honored to be Joe's wife and adapted the signature of "MrsJoeB" since our wedding day. My heart in no way has changed in this but you will see a change in my signature on this blog site.

But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abundant in faithful love and truth.
Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give Your strength to Your servant; save the son of Your female servant.
Show me a sign of Your goodness; my enemies will see and be put to shame because You, LORD, have helped and comforted me.~Psalm 86:15-17 (HCSB)

As God has worked through my life, my focus has changed. The truth I have come to is I am first and foremost God's maidservant. It is what I want to be, to have the humble and submissive heart of Hannah or Jesus mother Mary.

Webster defines maidservant as "a female servant, one that serves others ". Interesting enough, there was no other descriptive word in the Thesaurus for servant or maidservant. It is a plain and simple concept and that is what we are to be...a servant of God.

The role of a maidservant, also called a "handmaid" is surrounded by domestic responsibilities. In the Bible, their role often included bringing forth children for their master as with Rebekah and Issac. I am thankful we live differently today (call me selfish!). There are many days however, that I hint of having the blessing of someone to come into my home and help with the domestic responsibilities. However, it does keep you humbled when you are the mom, the wife AND the maidservant, agree?

The key concept to take here is in what the maidservant brought to their master-they brought honor in their service. As a nurse I am a maidservant to the sick. I bring honor to God's calling for my life. As a wife and mother I am a maidservant to my family, called to bring honor to God in how I serve and love them. As a maidservant in ministry I bring honor to God by service.
Honor. Service. Doing. Being for others...not for myself. That is the definition of a true maidservant.

I cherish this role. I desire this role. God has proven Himself over and over in my life when I take on this attitude of being His maidservant. I am convicted to change my signature because of all the things that I am in life-wife, mother, daughter, sister, nurse, college instructor, friend, women's ministry leader-I am Gods maidservant first and foremost.

O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.
I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD.~Psalm 116:16&17


Be encouraged to be His maidservant in this new year! As a child of God, we are called to be His maidservant and to bring honor to Him.


His maidservant~Pamela


9 comments:

achildoftheking said...

Amen Pamela.

Yolanda said...

Friend,

I can't help but think of the scripture I am memorizing.....you who serve God, praise God.

It also causes me to think of something I use almost daily.

UB4Me=love

Love is serving, correct? A true maidservant you are!

Love ya,
Yolanda

Amy said...

I will have to write this verses in my S.O.A.P. journal that I have started, thanks to you.:)

Happy New Year to you, Pamela!
I pray that God blesses you abundantly, sweet friend.

God Bless,
Amy:)

Laura said...

I'm praying for more of a servant's heart in 2009! thanks for leading the way, pamela. A blessed new year to you and your family.

LynnSC said...

Awesome Pamela... what better honor to be called His Maidservant??

Praying for God's blessings over you and your family for 2009
Lynn

TeriAnnElizabeth said...

You are such a blessing to me, Pam! You and I have walked the hard roads and GOD loves us just the same as those women - the non prodigals that stayed close to home and HIM.

It is not fair - nothing about HIS grace is fair...but you know that and I know that and that is why we love HIM so, so much.

We have been forgiven much and we love much. We don't struggle with, "Am I good enough for HIM?" We got our answer the hard way.

We have been humbled by the One that can truly humble a soul and then lift them up with a kiss and dry away their tears like a loving Father does.

I want people to read that blog entry and any others that HE puts on my heart - so that GOD will speak to whomever and they will not go down the path that leads to destruction.

Graciously, it lead to the destruction of our flesh...I praise HIM for that!

Anything you can think of that I may have forgotten with regards to reminding others of Satan's schemes in the married life...e-mail me.
Marriages are under attack and those of us who have been in the battle zone without the armour of GOD need to warn the others. HE does not want us to be ignorant of Satan's schemes!

Love and prayers,
Teri

Paula V said...

Hi Maidservant, Pamela. :-)

I thought I had saw Pamela (His maidservant) on a couple comments. Then I took a double look at the icon (the cross) so I had to come over and see that this was you. I kind of thought from the title change what your post would be.

I think it's grand.

In my last post "Does God Change His Mind?" I described the servant and Master role. I feel as His servant and He is my master. Someone corrected me and said I was His friend and not servant. I knew/felt differently. So, it was kind of nice to see someone else call herself servant. Not that I needed it but I don't know. I felt inside I needed to defend my reasoning but didn't. I let it be.

Sweet blessings,
Paula

Beth Herring said...

I just found your blog. All I can say is I just had church before I left to go to church! Thank you for truly being a servant. We serve a mighty God.

Seeking Him,
Beth

Steffany said...

I found your blog via a comment you left on Beth Moore's blog, and I'm already so deeply blessed by your words. Thank you for this important, timely, truth-filled reminder of the definition of a maidservant. Oh, how I needed to read this today. Thank you!