“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;” –Acts 17:24-25
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:45
For most of my life, I have tried so hard to serve God, that I forgot that He first came to serve me. I have come to learn that the things we do may not change when God opens our eyes and understanding to clearly see something, but the reasons we do them profoundly change.
It may seem silly, almost pointless to dig deep into the reasons we do what we do. If we continue on the path of living the Christian life, why do we need to know the root motive?
Matthew 15:8 says: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Proverbs 4:23 says: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (NASB)
Through these verses we clearly see the root of all we do flows from our heart. We can do all the right things but if our heart isn’t grounded on a steady foundation of truth, if our motives are off– it will show. If our words honor God, but our heart is rooted elsewhere, our actions will not flow completely pure. We may be able to put on a show for some people, but our actions will flow impure somewhere. We must guard our heart. We must dig into the depths of our heart to continually learn why we do things.
Thank goodness God does not require us to be perfect. He sent His Son to reconcile us to Him to enable us to grow in Him because of Him. Thank God this is not a lesson to heap guilt and shame on us, but instead to find freedom to learn and grow in Him. We will never be perfect until Heaven, but each day we have the opportunity to lay our very lives down to be renewed and conformed more and more to His image.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
My whole life is an act of worship. Not an act of worship outwardly, but inwardly through Jesus. Our outward works overflow from our inward renewal and transformation. I confess (too often) this gets reversed in my life. It is a constant battle to ground myself first inside, then let my inside pour outward. Because Jesus came to serve us, to wash our feet, to lay His life down, we can lay our life down as a living sacrifice each day. That means each day, all the things we do are an act of worship. Because He first served us, we can freely receive all He gives us then pour it out from an inward renewal.
To live our life as an act of worship, I pray we can always dig deep into our heart and remember our bodies and lives are a sacrifice to God. It isn’t about worshiping Him with our hands, or in physical ways, it is about allowing Him to daily renew us. In this renewal He serves us so we can then serve Him. It all starts with Him. Worship flows from Him through us and then back to Him.
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