I came across this devotional in my daily study and it impacted me so much I just had to share it. It is such a worthwhile exercise to continually check our motives and re-align our hearts to the awesome loving Father that we serve.
Psalms 100:2
Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
One of the most freeing yet forgotten truths of the Christian life is this: God only wants us to serve Him because we want to. He doesn’t demand, or even accept when we do things for Him out of a sense of duty, obligation, fear, or guilt. None of those motivations matter with Him. He wants our service, our worship, but only if we serve and worship Him with gladness.
That’s a radical (and perhaps unwelcome) concept for many. A lot of people have sacrificed years of service that were done out of obligation and not out of desire. Untold amounts of money, time, and energy have been rendered in the service of the Lord ... for the wrong reasons.
Their lives have been a succession of bitter offerings that don’t bear any fruit. Over time, they get burnt out and their deeds never glorify God like they should or draw others to Him. Why? Because the joy and gladness is absent. In fact, these people often drive people away from the Lord because they give off the vibe that anything you do with Him is a depressing drudgery. Who would want to follow a God whose servants and followers are so miserable?
God wants us to serve Him because we want to and because we’re glad to. It begs the obvious question: What’s the motivation behind our service? Are we doing it because we want to score points with Heaven, to ease a guilty conscience, or to look better to the people around us? Or do we serve because our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for God’s love and we want to love Him back by serving Him?
