Warren Wiersbe gives us a great way of looking at what it means to serve God. According to Wiersbe: “To serve God means to fear Him, obey Him, and worship only Him. It means to love Him and fix your heart upon Him, obeying Him because you want to and not because you have to.”1
As I was reflecting on this quote I began to realize that serving God is not only having a reverential fear or awe of who God is but obeying His wonderful commands, as well as spending quality time is just worshipping and praising Him for who he is. Not only that but we should want to tell Him how much we love Him all throughout the day. But what really blessed me was the last part of Wiersbe’s quote when he said: “obeying Him because you want to and not because you have to.”
The more time I spend alone with God, the more I study the Scriptures, and the more I comprehend just how much God loves me and provides for my every need, the greater becomes my desire to want to obey Him out of a deep heartfelt love. Because God has been so good to me, how could I not want to reciprocate my love back to Him by obeying His every command. My friends the more you fall in love with Jesus, the more you desire to please Him because that’s just what love does. Obeying God just out of duty will not bring true joy, whereas obeying Him out of sheer delight will not only bring joy to our hearts but blessings to our lives. Blessings always follow obedience to the Lord.
Obeying God shows that we love Him and want to serve Him by doing His will. And in a strange way obeying God is somewhat selfish because the more we obey Him the more blessings will flow our way. Now don’t get me wrong, we shouldn’t obey God in order to get blessings but instead we should obey Him out of our deep sense of gratitude for all He has done for us.
When you really love someone, you desire to bless that individual and do things that will bring joy and happiness their way. It shouldn’t be any different when it comes to our love of Jesus. I have found that the greatest joy and blessing I get in life is when I do things to please Jesus.
Too many people look at the word obedience in a negative way. I choose to look at it, in relationship to God, as the gateway to rich meaning, amazing joy, and putting a smile on God’s face. In the last analysis what can be more rewarding than to be a part of following Jesus, playing a role in building up His kingdom, and glorifying His name.
I look at serving God as a great privilege and obeying Him as not my duty, but my delight. I challenge you to find a more rewarding life than a life that is in total submission to Jesus. The more we serve and obey Jesus the more we can claim (Psalm 16:11) as one of our life verses. This amazing verse should be memorized by every Christian. It reads: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
1 Inspirational Quotes by Warren Wiersbe – page 8 (bibleportal.com)