Not For A Response

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

Monitors

One day I went to work out with my beautiful momma, and this was at a time in my life when I was fearful of running on the treadmill. I was not at the running stage yet. Catch how lovely and encouraging the word yet is. We should not be hard on ourselves when we are not where we hope to one day be but, rather, embrace the journey that God has us on to get there. He wants to teach us things in the process. So, purposefully, I was walking on the treadmill beside my momma. This was when I first began to really try out this workout machine, and I started to enjoy it pretty quickly because God began to show me something through this treadmill.

At the workout place we went to, we were each given a monitor. This monitor connects to a screen at the front of the gym that basically shows how hard each person is working based on the calories they are burning, their heart rate, and so on. I apparently did not have my monitor on correctly, and because of this, the screen at the front of the room was showing that I wasn’t doing anything. This made me smile so big because whatever we do, we do it in Jesus’ name with all of our hearts as we are working for the Lord and not for man. I was working hard, but the screen did not say so, and the screen was what everybody could see.

Often, we allow our identity, our validation, and our progress to be determined by what is seen on a screen by others. This could be found through the number of likes that we get on social media or in any way that is filtered through the approval of people. But the moment that we begin to take action and start running on our own strength so that we can get the applause of people and the spotlight from a screen is the moment that we have missed the whole purpose.

Serving like Jesus

In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem one day, and He was going into a village. From a distance, ten men with leprosy stood and called out in a loud voice saying, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” He cleansed all ten of them, but only one came to thank Him. Jesus knew that only one out of the ten would thank Him, and He still chose to heal them—because He wanted His Father to get all of the praise.

In the same way, Jesus came and died for all of the sins of the world. He came and died and rose again so that every single person might have a way to eternally be with the Father. He knew that there would be some who would not believe in Him, and even so, He died, fully loving each and every one of us.

Sometimes you will act kindly and show love and step out of your comfort zone to bring encouragment to others without acknowledgment. Sometimes you will not receive a thank-you. But we are not called to love people and live in obedience to God so that people will tell us thank you or so that we will be noticed on a screen. God is looking at our hearts, and He is looking for hearts that want Him to be noticed and for Him to be praised.

In Secret

True joy in living for the Lord is when we serve Him by serving others and could care less if anyone ever knew our name. Our focus must be that His name be made known among the hearts of all people because it is all about Him. May we be a people who love and serve and give and work wholeheartedly because of who God is and because it is His approval that we are seeking and He is who we are living for.

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be done in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4). We should not serve others so we can boast in what we do but, rather, so we can boast in how good the Lord is (2 Corinthians 10:17). He is why we cannot help but serve. For example, I don’t pay for the person behind me in the drive-through so that they will know my name but so that they can get a glimpse of who God is by my loving them in that way. This life is not for a screen, but it is for Him to be seen through us.