What’s your motivation?
For anything? Getting a new house, for example. Why? You must pack up and move. Likely your payment will go higher. Why bother? A coat of new paint and polish the floors, and the old one is good as new …
Or a new car … even the cost of a $6,000 motor is recouped within a year. New car payments are through the roof. Keep the old one, and you’ll come out ahead in the end …
Or in smaller things … losing twenty pounds … that new lamp … a trip to the beach …
Not all these things are bad, and your motivation might be perfectly logical. Even commendable. Two thumbs up for wanting to provide a better life for yourself or your family.
What about our walk with Jesus? What incentive is out there to increase our motivation to show up at church, write a check for the offering, share our religious beliefs, read our Bible, and put Jesus first in everything?
Do we get a paycheck for serving Jesus? Does it benefit us here on earth?
Ephesians 6:7 in the NIV says:
“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.”
The venerated KJV says: “With good will doing service …”
The ESV Bible says: “Rendering service with a good will …”
What is service? Merriam-Webster tells us service means “a contribution to the welfare of others.”
Our relationship with Christ is about what we can do for the Lord, not what he can provide for us.
Does God provide for us? Yes. However, that cannot be our motivation for following Jesus. Our motivation for aligning our lives with Jesus is to render our lives in service unto him.
Christ first, ourselves second. It’s the only way to live.
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Code: FGO.F.04.21d.vp.niv