In this season of life, I am grateful to say that I am surrounded by quality friends. Laura is one of them. She is an answer to prayer and I am blessed beyond measure to call her friend. This Sunday we sat huddled together under comforters in her living room discussing God. Sometimes the thought of “discussing God” just makes me laugh because I know by the end of the conversation He, God, will still be a glorious mystery in so many ways.
During this discussion I told Laura I have been praying that the Holy Spirit will guide my thoughts and discussions when it comes to uncovering God and faith. (This was largely inspired by Laura herself!) It is so easy to interpret the Word of God in ways that make us “comfortable” or “conviction free,” but it is my belief that when we read God’s Word, most of the time it should rock our world. We ought to be challenged by the Truth we read and apply it to our daily lives. We must let it sharpen our faith and we must have the guts to practice what we read and hear. “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” James 1:22-24
Since I’ve prayed this prayer, I have been challenged with an incredible thought. “I have done my best to walk for the Lord, but have I been walking with the Lord?” I am starting to believe this is a subtle confusion The Enemy uses to trip us up, especially me. The temptation to serve Jesus before, or in substitute of, loving Him is very real indeed. It is a temptation that creeps up so slowly that it can easily grow deep roots around the hearts and minds of Christians. Another way I’ve heard it is “the greatest competitor to loving Jesus is serving Him.” The danger with this confusion is that we start to believe that we can or must earn our salvation through acts of service alone. Maybe I’m being presumptuous by assuming everyone is like me, but I bet some of you reading identify with this more than you would care to admit.
My goal from this blog is to help us begin to check our hearts. To learn that serving Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean loving Him well is a hard pill for me to swallow, but God is clear in His Word when He says He is more concerned about matters of the heart than anything else. “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 Jesus looks at the motivations of our hearts.
Are we serving as a response to our love for Jesus, or are we serving to earn our love from Him? Are we serving to prove something to ourselves? I’m not asking these questions to accuse. I’m simply writing out the questions I’ve been asking to myself these past few days. I have done my best to walk for the Lord, but have I been walking with the Lord?
Laura and I mulled over these questions there on the floor of her apartment and we agreed that it is best to serve out of our fullness in Jesus and out of our love for Him. We do not want to fall into the temptation that serving will relieve us of our guilt from past decisions, or give us an extra dose of grace. Works alone get us nowhere fast. We do not earn grace and we cannot earn grace. How can you earn something that is freely given? That, my friends, is a lesson that I need to learn in a deeper way.
I want to clarify that I think serving others is an incredible gift God has given us. He loves us enough to give us the gift of joy and satisfaction from helping others. We must not believe the subtle lie that serving will make God loves us more or that it will guarentee us a "spot in heaven." Serving must come from an understanding that we are loved beyond measure simply because we are God’s children. I challenge each of us to slow down, focus in on our personal relationship with Christ, and then serve as a response to Love. Walking with God is the only way to walk for Him.
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