Devotion: Serve The Lord With Gladness

It is amazing how many so-called Christians do not actually know God.  We all have relied on traditional teachings to provide us with spiritual knowledge, the kind of knowledge that supposedly brought us closer to God.  We have put our faith and our trust in these teachings because that was and always has been the accepted practice.  We have been taught to never question the things of God or anything that we did not understand.  Over the years, man has either forgotten or just plain ignored the laws of God.  Man has even forgotten or misinterpreted the teachings and sayings of Jesus Christ.  And to beat it all, man does not truly seek to know God much anymore, forgetting how to walk and to talk with God.  Man has become totally dependent upon the church leaders, television, books, the Internet, and other various mediums to teach them the truth about God, Jesus Christ, salvation, and the word of God.  We currently have a belief system full of contrary beliefs, misguided values, unethical practices, and overstated theologies.  This belief system has made it hard for many to take hold of the truth, especially when one does not recognize it.  The truth has become so distorted that it is easy to see why man has a hard time identifying with the things of God and even God himself.

Even with our current belief system, many strive to find that one on one relationship they have heard about most of their lives although it appears to elude them.  Is God behind or at the bottom of this elusive act?  Or, is there something else that is responsible for our inability to connect with God?  We believe that going to church on Sunday is good enough to make it through life and that is all the religion we need or want.  We are just comfortable with the feel-good feelings we get on Sunday and have no desire to expand our knowledge.  Even though we claim to be a society of church going, Bible toting, praying Christians, how many of us really know God?  How many of us spend time alone with God?  How many of us spend time truly studying the word of God?  How many of us spend time praying or talking to God?  How many of us spend time being in fellowship or walking with God?  Scripture tells us that for us to worship God, we “must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), but if our truth is distorted by contrary beliefs, misguided values, unethical practices, and overstated theologies, then which god are we actually serving?

Scripture tells us to “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing (Psalm 100:2), which is something that many so-called Christians desire to do.  However, to truly serve or worship God, we have to know God; we have to have that personal relationship with God; and we have to know the truth, which according to scripture “will make you free” (John 8:32). 

We pray that this message will be a blessing to you as well as informative.  If blessed by this message please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW