Motives To Serve GodSample

Spotlight On My Motives To Serve God

I attended a lot of camps and meetings as a teen and young adult. The emphasis put on serving God was always loud and clear. 

"Take a stand for God!"

"Do not be ashamed to be Christian."

"Sacrifice and serve the Lord with gladness."

"Talk about Jesus to your friends— each one, reach one!"

I seemed to understand what was being said to be "light and salt" in a needy environment. 

But sometimes it looked like we served from these motives:

1. To please our youth leader or ministry leader or even parents

2. To become famous and look good on the outside

3. To showcase our talents

4. To have a platform from which to gain experience

It is not wrong to want to please your parents or youth leaders.  You are actually learning to come under authority, which is a very Biblical concept. When you exhibit your talents, you might be like the servant with 5 talents who turned it into 10. This is good.

But pleasing people is not the best motivation for serving. The longer we try to please people the emptier we can become on the inside. The longer we are working to look good to man, we will want the glory rather than giving it to God.

There should be another underlying factor that makes us desire to serve Jesus. As I searched the scriptures I found two principles that personally have kept me on track. In my early 30's when my husband wanted to quit his corporate job and serve God full time as a family, I wanted desperately to understand the foundation from which to build our lives to serve God for His Kingdom.

Come back tomorrow to see what they are.