I don’t like broccoli, never have, I’ll eat it if it is all there is, but I won’t like it.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
When I get to heaven, I will not have to eat broccoli, I may have to still hear someone say, “Oh, you’ll like it this way,” to which I will still politely refuse it, but I will not have to eat it.
I do not have to write these letters, I have never been a letter writer, but I was compelled to and continue to be driven to by the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. He has transformed my mind and made me into a writer of letters. And I enjoy it, for my friends I watch with great interest as my pen flows across the page to see what it is going to be written. I study to show myself approved as much as the Lord reveals to me, I seek out the lost, usually on YouTube, but in person as much as possible, I submit to the fullest amount this sinful old man knows how to, to the Lord for His glory. And I enjoy it, but I ask you this question today in association with Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
How much of what I am called to do, how much of what you are not only called to do, but actually perform is of you, and how much is of the Lord? Do you anticipate with great excitement the opportunity to speak to those you meet about the Lord Jesus Christ, or do you fear those opportunities? Do you relish in the thought of encouraging the brethren as much as you do rebuking the wicked?
Since you know without a doubt that you are supposed to be obedient to the will of God without question, do you perform the tasks that He has placed before you with joy or trepidation?
Here is the real question my friends, how much of you is serving Christ, and how much do you do out of a supposed obligation, because you feel required to?
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)
Grace, when not recognized as what it is, the unmerited, underserved favor of the Living God, can soon return one to a form of the Law, doing what is required of you because it has been commanded of you to do so. Those who do so, and I personally believe it is many, are those who profess Him only with their lips, the obligations have overridden the love they are to have.
Perhaps it is easier to explain this way, do you thoroughly and completely enjoy serving the Lord without questioning His authority in your life, or do you do so because of an obligation you feel towards Him? Can you accept the gifts, or do you want to pay Him for them?
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” (Col. 3:23)
Is the need you feel to serve Him whom you call Master because of love or obligation? If the latter my friend, then you may not fully understand that word grace.
If the Almighty wanted to, He could instantaneously modify my taste buds to where I would be a broccoli junkie, but He does not work that way. He has blessed you with free will, to eat whatever you want to, depending on the financial wherewithal He has blessed you with, or to refrain from that which you dislike. So then, there is the true question of this short letter, do you like serving the Lord?
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Eze. 36:26)
