We, Sarah’s family, would love to share with you what it means to “serve like Sarah.”
We did not initiate #servelikesarah after Sarah’s death, but we are so grateful that is the phrase that came to other people’s minds when reflecting on Sarah’s life. It is so very fitting.
Sarah had a deep and abiding love for the Lord that flowed out of a clear understanding of her sinfulness and the magnitude of His redemption made available through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Sarah’s service flowed out of a heart of surrender to Him.
She understood what it was to be a bondservant of the Lord and she longed to serve Him fully. Her service was not a legalistic response to a “to do” list, but rather the natural overflow of an intimate relationship with Him. Before you can “serve like Sarah” you must “surrender like Sarah.”
January 6, 2016
Dear Lord,
Thank you for speaking to me through your Word today. I want to especially pray a prayer of thanksgiving today. I want to thank you for dying for me. I owe a debt I can never repay. Thank you for giving me your Word which gives me what I need to hear whenever I open it. Thank you for your constant provision. Thank you for Anita Dittman’s story. It strengthened my faith and made me appreciate you even more. And the one thing I want to ask for today is for help to walk as a child of the light. I think that sums up everything else I could ask for. Thank you again, Lord. I love you. In Jesus name, amen.
~ Sarah Harmening
She mentioned Anita Dittman in her journal above, Anita’s autobiography, Trapped in Hitler’s Hell, was one of her favorite books. Sarah wrote elsewhere about it, “He [God] used Anita Dittman, a seventeen year old Jewish Christian, and put her in a terrible situation so that she could be a light for the prisoners that had no hope.” How poetic that Sarah was so moved and encouraged by God’s use of a seventeen year old girl in a tragic situation to be a light for those who had no hope. In our culture the meaning of the word “hope” has been distorted, but thankfully Sarah understood it in its Biblical context. Our hope is not a slight possibility but is instead a certainty, a promise from the mouth of God – hope does not disappoint.
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 [NASB]
Sarah’s certain hope was firmly rooted in who God is, what He has done and all He has promised. She loved Him deeply because He first loved her. Her knowledge of His love for her compelled her heart of surrender to Him. Her heart of surrender created a longing for intimate relationship with Him. A longing for intimacy with Him drove her to prolonged periods of seeking Him through His Word and prayer. The overflow of that deep and abiding relationship with Him was the love and service that others saw or are now seeing in her. I hope you will accept the challenge to “serve like Sarah”, but before you can successfully do so you must “surrender like Sarah.”
Sarah’s heart repeatedly cried out to Him to make her a “child of the light.” She wanted to be like Anita Dittman, she wanted to be a light “for the prisoners who have no hope.”
We rejoice in God’s gracious answer to her prayers in His causing her life and legacy to shine as a bright light for Him. Like Abel, God has preserved her testimony, and through her steadfast obedient faith, though she died, she still speaks (Hebrews 11:4).
“You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 [NIV]
Do you have the Hope and peace that come through a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
If you would like to learn more about how to draw nearer to Him or how to begin a relationship with Him, please message us, or explore Steps to Peace.
We join Paul in praying that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 [NIV]
Listening to Him 