Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that God created us for his pleasure. We have to remind ourselves that he is the master of the universe and we serve him. Because if we don’t, we might begin to think otherwise. With our prayers, we may begin to behave as if God exists to bless us, to save us, to heal us and to protect us and those we love. He does those things for us because he loves us, but we are the ones who should be serving him. After all, he is almighty God, and we are his creation. So, I would challenge you to remember to humble yourself before him; to love him, serve him, worship him, praise him and treat him as Lord and King. And when we do, we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back as if we’ve done something special. Because in actuality, we’re only doing our duty. Jesus says in Luke, chapter 17, verses 7 through 10:
“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
If you live in American, you live in a culture that fosters self-entitlement. We’ve been taught that we deserve certain things. Many of us think that the government owes us something, that the rights we enjoy are deserved, and that so many of the pleasures we experience were created for us. We may even begin to believe that God owes us. After all, there are so many promises in the Bible that benefit us. The bulk of our prayers may be prayed in order to serve our needs. But we are the created. We were made to serve him, and we need to remind ourselves of that or we may be taught that lesson the hard way. In the account that Jesus highlights in Luke 17, he reminds us that we are the unworthy servants. When we obey God, worship him, tithe to him, or serve him, we are only doing our duty. I would encourage you to consider how much of your life is in service to God, and how much of your life you are expecting God to serve you.
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If you were in God’s presence right now; if you were there in his courts and were able to see him on his throne with Jesus sitting at his right hand, how would you respond? Every believer would kneel and worship him. We would humble ourselves before the God of the universe, the creator of everything that is, and we would be ready to serve him in any way he desired. It would be our honor to do so. And in serving, we would only be doing our duty. If we would respond that way in his throne room, why would we respond differently here on earth? We are so blessed to know that God loves us. He wants us to pray to him and he will often give us the desires of our heart if they line up with his character. That is because he is our Father. But he is also our king. If we obey him; if we take up our cross daily and follow him; if we give our lives to him; if we run hard after him; if we submit to him by being his hands and feet here on earth helping our fellow man and leading others to him, we are not doing anything worthy of his praise or gratitude. We are only doing our duty.
