Do you ever stop to consider what is truly motivating your thoughts and actions? What is the driving force behind the choices you make? As Christians we strive to live in a way that reflects Christ and is pleasing to God, but that is not always easy.
There are many distractions in our daily lives: work, family, school, commitments, entertainment. These are not inherently bad but rather what makes us human. The Bible says that God “is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13) He wants to work through us and use us in this specific time and place in the history of the world to reach others with the love of Christ and to make His name known. And that needs to happen in our workplaces, our families, our schools.
As you go about your day and interact with the people and the world around you, are you putting yourself first and doing what’s best for you, or are you listening for God’s voice and looking for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ?
1 Peter 4 tells us, “as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified…”
Are you serving and loving others with God’s strength or with your own? Are you giving with a cheerful heart as Abel, or a reluctant one like Cain? Are you “pressing on to receive the prize” or just going through the motions?
Let’s be challenged to take a deep look at what drives us to, or keeps us from, serving others. Let’s look honestly at how we are really spending our time and money and where our treasures lie. Let’s ask God for a renewed heart and a willing spirit. That he would break our hearts for what breaks His and show us where there is a need that we can meet, so that in all we do, big or small, seen or unseen, God gets the glory.