Obeying God’s Will

When I was younger I had many responsibilities around the house. Once time I felt particularly proud of myself for having cleaned the whole house and then some, so I asked my mom for an allowance. I said something to the effect of, “I do chores every day without getting anything for it, while everyone else at school gets an allowance for doing only one thing!” My mother always thanked me for my help, but she told me I wasn’t getting rewarded for doing something I should have already been doing on my own. My dad’s responses were similar; he would always make a comment about my “reward” as being that I got to eat dinner every night. (haha, very funny dad!) As a kid everything that isn’t pleasurable seems like drudgery, but today I am glad to have grown up with strict expectations, otherwise the grown-up world would have been a real shock.

 Obedience to the Lord is the duty we are all called to. He expects me to give of myself without expectation of any immediate reward. Of course, we know that we DO have a reward to look forward to, everlasting life in Jesus. Everything of the Father’s is ours. Our reward is so much greater than our small minds can comprehend. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”.

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Luke 17:7-10

Dear Lord, thank you for being our loving Father who is happy to delight us with good things. I pray that obedience may cease to be a burden. Help us to serve you and one another from a heart over flowing with love from you – keep us from the lies of selfishness and pride that prevent loving actions.