Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God.
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
Psalm 100, NKJV
Missing two days of blogging is what I get for going out of town without my computer. But right up front let me say I am very thankful for the last two days, and thankful now to get back to my routine of blogging my gratitude. It's a wonderful exercise!
You know, serving the Lord is not always simple or easy. It requires dedication and discipline. It requires selflessness and sacrifice. It requires effort on our part. Some people "get saved"--they raise their hand, walk an aisle, pray a prayer, sign a card, shake somebody's hand, maybe even get dunked underwater for good measure--and never do anything with it. They don't change; they don't grow; they don't work. Often times they don't even stay with it. They think, "Well, now I've made my peace with God, I can go live like I want to live and everything is okay."
Can I tell you, everything is not okay with that kind of thinking?
I've been serving the Lord for nearly thirty-five years, including the two and a half years during which my parents served the Lord before I gave my heart to Jesus at the tender age of six. I gave my life to Him a long time ago, and I told Him I would serve Him for the rest of my life. I won't try to convince you that I've always been perfect, or that I have never messed up since I got saved. There have been mistakes, bad choices, stupid decisions, wrong actions taken by this poor wretched man. Let's face it; whoever says they don't sin is a liar, and the truth is not in them. So I admit it; I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...many times.
I've had to deal with my own share of miserable moods and sorry attitudes. I've tangled with outward problems and inward too. I may not have killed anybody or committed adultery or stolen something, but I won't try to tell you that I've never had a problem with anger, lust or greed. I'm a man, and (though I'm not planning on going, and have done everything to ensure that I won't go) if I go to hell, it won't be for lying. I'm going to be honest with you today, I'm not perfect.
But in thirty-five years, I have never stopped serving the Lord. I didn't always walk as close as I could, or as well as I should. I didn't always do it with a humble heart or a committed spirit. But I never turned my back on Him. Even in the hard and difficult days that I've had to face. Even when friends turned their backs on me and my enemies were members of my own house. Even when the bottom dropped out of everything I'd been pouring my life into and I found my dreams in ruins. Even when I suffered disappointment and pain, grief and trial, persecution and loss. I did not quit. But I have to admit, I wasn't always happy about it. I wasn't always glad to be serving the Lord.
Serving the Lord with gladness is one of the challenges of the Christian life. Can you serve the Lord in sickness and in health? In poverty and wealth? In good times and bad times? In blessing and in loss? Can you serve the Lord when the night is dark, the road is rough, the night is dark, and the storm is fierce? Can you serve the Lord when nothing you do succeeds or seems blessed, when you can't feel His overwhelming presence when you rise or when you sleep? Can you serve the Lord with few or no companions, with no acknowledgement, appreciation or applause? Can you serve the Lord when your prayers aren't getting answered, when your seed fails to produce fruit? As one preacher I heard recently put it: Can you serve God when He gives you rocks instead of bread? And can you do it with a smile on your face and a song in your heart?
Your song might be "Farther Along We'll Know All About It" or "We'll Understand It Better By and By". Your song might be "No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus" or "No Never Alone." Heck, your song might even be "Hold the Fort." But can you find the gladness of serving the Lord even in those songs?
We're glad to be glad when all is well. We must still find our gladness, when everything is not.
Thank you Lord for a glad and happy heart. I've been through alot of sadness, in all probability will go through alot of sadness still. But as the tears roll down my cheeks, I will still say, "I will serve you with gladness, because you've never let me down."
Thank you Lord for the blessing of serving you, and for the Spirit in me that fills me with joy and gladness as I do it. Serving you is no burden, it's a joy!
Thank you Lord for the little rewards--the one shoot that springs from the many seeds I have sown, the one crust of bread that comes back on the tide, the one ray of light that shines through the overcast night. Thank you Lord for the small taste of sweetness when the world has been so bitter, for the small glimpse of future hope when the past has been so dismal. Thank you Lord for your blessed assurance because Jesus is mine!
I'm going to serve you with gladness, because I know you do all things well, and you are doing them for me.
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