Wednesday 2 May 2012

Wednesday Reading: Ephesians 6:5-8

Key Verse: Ephesians 6:6
6  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

Devotion:
I wonder how many times you have gone ahead and done something just to please someone else, not because you actually wanted to, not because you knew that it would please God but just to please someone else. Many of those times that we do that, we were probably looking for some sort of reward to come back to us for doing what we had just done as well. How fickle man can be. But there is a big difference between just doing something to make someone happy and shut them up and doing something because you want to please them from your heart.

God has set many things in our hearts that we should want to do for others and doing those things is right. How we go about doing those things and what we expect from them are different though. God wants us to be willing to do things for others, not because we have to but because we want to. It is no small thing that God has changed our hearts so that we will be more willing to please Him and please others. It is no small thing that we should then use what God has given us for good.

If you ask someone to do something for you and they resist, make up excuses, or do it with a long face, you may well feel bad about asking them in the first place – you certainly will not have much joy from them doing your bidding. God does not want us to have that attitude toward anything that He asks from us, whether it is to do something for Him directly or to do something for someone else. He wants us to show a happy face and a willing heart to lift up His name and glorify Him rather than to throw doubt on our sincerity. When Christ went to the cross it was not with a long face and complaints all the way; instead He went willingly and glorified God through all that He did.

We cannot hope to be able to please both man and God and God knows that. But our aim should be that we aim to serve Him first of all with a singleness of heart; in other words we should have a single aim in our hearts to please God. If we do listen to Him then we will be asked to please men as well by doing things for God for them, hence still giving God the glory. Should we be asked to do things for men who do not know God, doing their bidding as a Christian will still allow us to glorify our God even though we are doing earthly deeds. Keep God in focus. Keep Him first in your minds.

Points to Ponder:
Do you say yes to everything?

Are you keeping God’s will in focus?