There is a common thread throughout all of my reasons. That common thread is that I serve God because of who he is. I serve God because he is amazing! I serve God because he is unconditional. I serve God because he is the perfect Father. I serve God because he is personal.
The reality is that when we are asked “Why do you serve God?” or even “Why do you believe in God” people are too often looking for Janet Jackson faith, “What have you done for me lately”. When we engage God on the basis of this type of faith it carries us far from the Hupomone faith of Scripture. We are tossed on the waves of circumstance and appearance. We become subject to the very thing that Paul warns about in Ephesians 4:14, As a result we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness of scheming;
Joseph is a great example of a man whose faith relied not on the circumstances that he found himself in but in who God is. Abraham followed the directions of God by faith in who God is. Paul tells us that it was that faith that God recognized as righteousness. This is a good thing because Abraham like so many of us slipped up on more than one occasion! When Moses asked God who should I tell the Israelites you are, his answer was “‘I who I am; Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you'” Genesis3:14. This is not to say that God does not remind us from time to time all that he has done from the creation of the world throughout the history of mankind (Psalm 106 for example). However when the rubber meets the road faith requires us to choose him, simply because he Is. When we rely on circumstances and appearances our faith becomes mechanical. We run the risk of falling into the trap of tradition that God condemns through Isaiah, “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words, and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,…'” Isaiah 29:13
God wants us to love and serve him because of who he is. He is not a gumball machine that we put our Quarter of Faith into and out pops the thing that we desire. We need to desire him. This has been a long learned lesson for me. We are so invested in things and circumstances. But what happens when things and circumstances go bad. It is only when we serve him because of who he is that we can stand with Job and say:
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him…” Job 13:15
Job understood that circumstances did not define his relationship with God. His relationship with God was defined by who God is! I serve God because he is God and because he is God I know who I am.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:15-17
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