One thing we can't deny is that serving God is necessary. A false teaching, and fanciful idea, entered the Christian church some centuries ago when Luther began teaching "sola fide" (by faith alone), meaning a person is saved by faith alone. The problem is two things: 1) The only place the phrase "faith alone" appears in the Bible is in James 2:24 ("not by faith alone"), and 2) People misunderstand Paul's teachings. When Paul wrote in his letters "by grace you have been saved, through faith... not by works" he was referring to regeneration. This should be so obvious when we think of it. He is writing to people alive on this earth and he says "you have been saved". Clearly he's not talking about them being in heaven (what people often assume when talking about salvation); he's talking about regeneration, being born of the Spirit and entering God's kingdom on earth. Apply his words to entering heaven and you have a contradiction with verses like Romans 2:6-8 or Revelation 22:12. So one thing is certain: We must serve God if we want to enter heaven and avoid hell.
This shouldn't be too hard. There really shouldn't be any resistance to the idea of serving God. Jesus says its easy.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. -Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30
That may sound odd, if you know much of the rest of the gospels. When we first read Jesus' teachings/commands we feel overwhelmed. Its radical stuff, and maybe not so easy, but if we seriously think about it, take a closer look and give it a try, I think we'll find that serving God actually is easy.
Abandoning the old
The thing that gets in the way, that makes it hard for us to serve God, is all of our worldly desires, responsibilities, worries, relationships and the like. We're set up with a decision: Do I live for myself, or do I live for God? Our nature pushes us to want to live for ourselves - to make our own lives as pleasing to our own selves as possible. That could be money or relationships or status or a bunch of drunk partying. All of these things have to be abandoned to serve God. And there's good reason to. I've told people before that you can be selfish and still be a Christian. What I mean is this: Giving up the small temporary rewards of living a worldly life for the eternal rewards of serving God is doing yourself a favor. If you really want to do the best thing for yourself, then you will serve God, because God can reward you extremely much better than the world can. So while it may go against our natural instinct, it actually is a smart (and maybe selfish) decision to serve God. Its a decision a man can make, and even though he's abandoning all worldly pursuits, he'll feel as though he's really losing nothing. That's where a person needs to start. Its impossible to serve God without first abandoning the pursuit of anything worldly. Once a person abandons the old, he'll find that serving God is actually quite easy.
Relying on His power
The single biggest reason that serving God is easy is that God gives us the power to do it. He will answer all who call on Him (Matthew 7:7). He gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (John 14:16-17). Think of it like this: If you were assigned the task of digging a six foot deep hole, four foot wide and eight foot long, and you were given a shovel, it would be hard wouldn't it? Now think of digging the same hole with an excavator. A few scoops and you're done - very easy. If you're well equipped to handle the task, the task will be easy. The Holy Spirit gives us what we need. Now let me give just one example of something God has given us, which makes serving Him much easier: The internet. So much of what we're commanded to do, like make disciples, edify one another and the like, is simply a matter of communication. The internet, specifically social networking sites, makes it so easy to communicate the gospel to nonbelievers and edification to believers. If you don't know what to do, do this simple thing: Post Bible verses as your Facebook or Twitter updates. Now isn't that incredibly easy? What could stop you from doing it? Oh yeah, worries of the world, like what people might think of you.
There's one last thing I want to point out, and that's the fact that serving God will not be the same for all people. Men and women are commanded to serve in different ways. Those who are given special gifts/talents are to use them. Some are called to lead and others to follow. Every person is unique, and the way each person serves God is not going to be exactly the same as the next. But the one thing that will always be the same is radical devotion. Serving God begins with a desire and commitment to make Him the number one of your life.
This shouldn't be too hard. There really shouldn't be any resistance to the idea of serving God. Jesus says its easy.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. -Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30
That may sound odd, if you know much of the rest of the gospels. When we first read Jesus' teachings/commands we feel overwhelmed. Its radical stuff, and maybe not so easy, but if we seriously think about it, take a closer look and give it a try, I think we'll find that serving God actually is easy.
Abandoning the old
The thing that gets in the way, that makes it hard for us to serve God, is all of our worldly desires, responsibilities, worries, relationships and the like. We're set up with a decision: Do I live for myself, or do I live for God? Our nature pushes us to want to live for ourselves - to make our own lives as pleasing to our own selves as possible. That could be money or relationships or status or a bunch of drunk partying. All of these things have to be abandoned to serve God. And there's good reason to. I've told people before that you can be selfish and still be a Christian. What I mean is this: Giving up the small temporary rewards of living a worldly life for the eternal rewards of serving God is doing yourself a favor. If you really want to do the best thing for yourself, then you will serve God, because God can reward you extremely much better than the world can. So while it may go against our natural instinct, it actually is a smart (and maybe selfish) decision to serve God. Its a decision a man can make, and even though he's abandoning all worldly pursuits, he'll feel as though he's really losing nothing. That's where a person needs to start. Its impossible to serve God without first abandoning the pursuit of anything worldly. Once a person abandons the old, he'll find that serving God is actually quite easy.
Relying on His power
The single biggest reason that serving God is easy is that God gives us the power to do it. He will answer all who call on Him (Matthew 7:7). He gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (John 14:16-17). Think of it like this: If you were assigned the task of digging a six foot deep hole, four foot wide and eight foot long, and you were given a shovel, it would be hard wouldn't it? Now think of digging the same hole with an excavator. A few scoops and you're done - very easy. If you're well equipped to handle the task, the task will be easy. The Holy Spirit gives us what we need. Now let me give just one example of something God has given us, which makes serving Him much easier: The internet. So much of what we're commanded to do, like make disciples, edify one another and the like, is simply a matter of communication. The internet, specifically social networking sites, makes it so easy to communicate the gospel to nonbelievers and edification to believers. If you don't know what to do, do this simple thing: Post Bible verses as your Facebook or Twitter updates. Now isn't that incredibly easy? What could stop you from doing it? Oh yeah, worries of the world, like what people might think of you.
There's one last thing I want to point out, and that's the fact that serving God will not be the same for all people. Men and women are commanded to serve in different ways. Those who are given special gifts/talents are to use them. Some are called to lead and others to follow. Every person is unique, and the way each person serves God is not going to be exactly the same as the next. But the one thing that will always be the same is radical devotion. Serving God begins with a desire and commitment to make Him the number one of your life.
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