Who Are You Serving?
By now your New Year’s resolutions may be filed away for next year. Oh how we start with big dreams and good intentions. Why are they so hard to follow through on? I think I might have an answer …
In September I took some training for a new course I’m helping facilitate this winter called “Freedom Session”. It’s about letting Jesus heal our pain and hurts that keep us captive, freeing us to move forward. One thing the instructor said has stayed with me even months later: In order to move forward, you have to want something else more than staying where you are. In other words find out what will motivate you to change.
By now your New Year’s resolutions may be filed away for next year. Oh how we start with big dreams and good intentions. Why are they so hard to follow through on? I think I might have an answer …
In September I took some training for a new course I’m helping facilitate this winter called “Freedom Session”. It’s about letting Jesus heal our pain and hurts that keep us captive, freeing us to move forward. One thing the instructor said has stayed with me even months later: In order to move forward, you have to want something else more than staying where you are. In other words find out what will motivate you to change.
In regards to New Year’s resolutions, I would say that most are self-serving. We want to quit a bad habit because of our health. We want to read through the whole Bible in one year because it’s supposed to be good for us. We want to plan monthly date-nights because that will help make our marriage stronger. We want to take a couple of courses so we can learn and grow more.
Now all of these sound like good goals to have. We applaud such plans. But is the motivation of self-fulfillment enough to make us carry through on our plans? And even if we do follow through are we any more satisfied then before we started? I just don’t think so. The writer of Ecclesiastes starts his book by saying in 1:2 (NLT) “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
So what is the answer? What will motivate us to move forward this year? We find the answer at the end of Ecclesiastes where the writer says in 12:13-14 - That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
I suggest to you that the motivation that works for moving us forward is: wanting to love and serve God. Serving anything or anyone else is really serving ourselves and that keeps us stuck and stagnant.
Now go back to the New Year’s resolutions I mentioned above and change the motivation from self-serving to God-serving.
- We want to serve God, so we ask God to help us stop serving our bad habits.
- We want to serve God, so we ask God help us read through the Bible.
- We want to serve God, so we ask God to help make our marriage strong.
- We want to serve God, so we ask God what we should be learning this year.
When our priority is to serve God in everything we do, then the results of that service are not our responsibility. They are God’s. What a relief!!! When we serve ourselves, it’s all up to us. How devastating!!!
Who or what are you serving today: the bathroom scale; your New Year’s resolutions; your family or friends; your job or vacation plans; or your dreams for the future? None of these will compel lasting change if they aren’t first based on serving God.
A good question to ask God multiple times during each day is, “Is what I’m doing or want to do serving you, God?”
- A new job opportunity is available. How is God asking me to serve him in this?
- My child wants to join the basketball team. How is God asking me to serve him in this?
- My pain from abuse keeps surfacing. How is God asking me to serve him in this?
- My friend’s mother just died. How is God asking me to serve him in this?
Do you get the idea? Listen to God’s answers and this year will be like none you have ever experienced before.
Blessing from Bev
#1 from David on January 25, 2010
Ive long questioned that when i see the world through my eyes only, whether or not it is possible to see anything apart from those eyes.
I desire to marry because I desire companionship , i want a family and i enjoy how the other person makes me feel. Not because i wish to fufill someone elses desire for companionship , fufill one others desire for a family and to make another person feel special (though paradoxically it is in my interest for the sake of relationship to do such things)
I relate this briefly explained mentality to god. I often wonder how much of me is me wishing to better my life , and not serving god at the expense of myself. I have thought of such things to an end which is not at all favorable to my character. I think that i serve god to the point of comfort.
Consistent with the mentality pushed on me by my culture , i am a christian… but only to a certian point. To the point of comfort. You see , i have no problem giving money to those in need ... so long as i have money. If this catastrophe in haiti happened and my cupboards were bare , my rent was due and bills needed to be paid…. i would not give… because doing so would take away from the comforted “cushiony” life that i have come to expect as deserved and obligatory. If someone needs some of my time , i am more than willing to extend that time to help in whatever needs helping…. so long as that time is free and not delegated to that which is important to me. You see , if i have an apointment , or a date with my wife , or something ‘I’ deem important… you and your needs will have to wait. I have come to realize that in every coneivable way i am entirely motivated by self interests… and so long as i have expendable resources (time , money , etc etc) i never realize this. It is not until my resources run dry do i realize how self motivated i truly am. Im not a regular church guy , but i would imagine an example to be .... tithing.
Now this is in itself a debateable issue… i think the whole mentality is backwards. So often i hear debated “How much should i give?” ... and not often do i hear “How much can i keep?”. But that aside , when the rent is due , and the cupboards are dry , resources expended… what is the first thing to cut? Well , for me… its the charity ... of all forms. BEcause when push comes to shove… in the world through my eyes , charity in all forms is a luxury to those who recieve it , and my comfortable life is a neccessity to me. When your anguish and the need to aid such anguish impede my capacity to live this in this deserved and expected comfort… i will sit idly by and watch you suffer while i refill my cupboards and pay my cable bill. I will watch as the world around me rot , children die , lives torn apart by poverty and do NOTHING .. because when i am faced with such a dilemma , my comfort means more to me than your anguish.
So whats the point? I have no idea… to be honest. I guess i have realized that i am in every single way possible , selfish to the fullest degree (and rather cocky too). I dont know how to overcome this beast that is myself… i dont even believe i can. I personally believe that the cure to this ailment is not found in a shift of perspective (god can you do this changing to god i want to do this.. help me). I dont by into the pychological belief that “its all about attitude”. I personally believe , 100% that the only cure is that god , of his own volition and will , penetrate the core of my being. I dont think there is anything i can do to make this happen , though some things are good for a man and others are not. (read the bible , pastorates =good. Drinking and fighting=bad)I really do think that its not so much that we are serving gods will and purpose , so much as god serving his own will and purpose… using us if he so chooses. I dunno , just an opinion. I have tried many times to just “think differently” .... but it doesnt work. I dont think i truly have the capacity to anything other than feign an attitude shift to accomplish something i deem desireable. I even personally think that in my attempts to shift attitude , i am motivated by selfish ambitions. I dont know if that will ever escape me in this life… whether it is even possible to entirely rid oneself of ones self. I dunno , kinda just typing for the sake of typing now, im done. Just wanted to share my views , but as a warning… my views are motivated by my own self interests…. so take them with a grain of salt , ok?