How do you worship God the Father and in what way do you serve Him? Is it out of a sense of duty, that we had better do so if we don’t want to suffer the consequences, or is it out of a deep sense of Love and because we want to worship and serve Him. Jesus said we are to love the Father with all of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength (Mark 12:30). Does this list leave anything out? We are to love God with all that we have and put Him first above everything in our lives, which includes our spouse, children and any family or friends. If we cannot serve Him out of a sense of love then we need to grow and learn to love Him as Jesus tells us to and He deserves, as the Father of all and creator of everything.

Notice that Jesus says that this the first and greatest of all commandments, so we should work ever diligently to fulfill it in our spiritual lives. Notice that it is a commandment and thus must be complied with if we are to be right with God. And it is something we can learn and teach ourselves to have and not subject to just random and undisciplined emotions.

If we love God as we aught, we will obey His commands and serve Him gladly and even eagerly, doing what He would have us do because we want to and not because we have to. When we are young in the faith we may find this hard to do. We were converted perhaps because the consequences of not obeying God were too hard to bear. We believed in Him and His Son, but our belief was not enough. As we grow in the faith and we should continue to grow throughout our lifetime, we must learn to love Him and serve Him out of this love or our faith is in vain.

God does not want automatons or robots to serve Him, but created us with free will so that we may choose to serve Him because we love Him and would not have it any other way. If we just go through the motions serving God out of a sense of duty and not out of a sense of love, we will never be fruitful and strong in our service to Him. He gave us a heart to love so that we may serve Him with every fiber of our being in love, devotion and strength that is only reserved for Him.

In turn, He will never fail or abandon us and will lift us up from the perils of this life to live with a sense of meaning and purpose and  we will learn to walk according to His Spirit and not after the dictates of our fleshly existence in this world (read Romans 8). We will find our walk with our God much easier if we learn to love Him as he deserves and demands. In fact, we cannot truly serve Him unless it be from the heart. It is through love of the Father that the bible is able to transform our lives into what He would have us be.

If we cannot love God, we cannot begin to serve Him and will surely not be acceptable to Him. Remember, the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all that we have. If we can learn to do so, all the rest will follow and we will willingly do what He would have us do. To serve Him out of a sense of duty or just to avoid the consequences of not doing so is not acceptable to Him.

So, let’s study out bible and learn to love the God that is reflected on every page. We will get much more out of it if we do so from the heart and not just out of rote memorization of passages and the like. Let’s serve God because we love Him, as He intends for us. We will not only be doing His will in so doing, but will get much more from the relationship, giving His word full rein and influence in our lives. He will then write His word on our hearts and not just our minds as he said he would in Hebrews 8:7-12. If we are to be true Christians, let’s serve our God out of love as He would have us do.

May God bless and keep you until next time.