Well Done...
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Matt 25:23. His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' (All scripture quotations are from the NIV unless otherwise indicated.)
Even after being born again, we don't have to go very far into either God's word or the experiences of our lives to begin to see at least in a measure the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9. There God says, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" How true this is!
Living in a fallen, corrupted world with a fallen, corrupted nature it is hardly surprising that man would be naturally inclined to see many things differently than our omniscient, perfectly holy God sees them. In fact, the unregenerate carnal mind is incapable of truly understanding God or discerning His ways. 1 Corinthians 2:14. But even as Christians we find ourselves at times acting or thinking according to a "wisdom" that isn't from God.
When the prophet Samuel went to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king over Israel (1 Samuel 16), he was very impressed with what he saw in Eliab, thinking that surely this was God's chosen king. But God used this occasion to reveal to him a simple, yet profound truth saying, "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (v. 7). Truly, if we are to understand things properly -- to learn to see things the way God sees them -- we need wisdom and instruction from our wise Heavenly Father.
One of the many areas in which this is true is when it comes to understanding what God is looking for in our lives and learning how to effectively serve Him with the sense of rest and joy that He desires us to have. We know that God's word tells us that we don't belong to ourselves but rather to Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. But we all tend to have our own ideas about what this means in a practical sense. Our natural inclination is to take these ideas and work in our own strength to try to live up to them, believing that we are "serving God" by doing so. Paul spoke in Romans 10:2 of people who had a zeal to serve God, but it was a zeal that was not based on knowledge. Needless to say the results of this approach are neither peaceable nor fruitful. Something else is required if we are to have God regard us as good and faithful servants. God wants to teach us to see things as He does and not according to our own opinions or the world's ideas. As our minds are changed in this way, we will truly be able to discern what God's will for us is. Romans 12:2.
It is also important to realize however that our carnal nature is not our only problem when it comes to learning how to serve God. We also find ourselves pitted against an enemy who actively works against our minds to undermine and distort what God's word teaches about living for Him. If we listen to Satan's subtle lies and entertain his ideas, God's truth is easily transformed in our minds from the easy yoke and light burden that Christ spoke of (Matthew 11:30) into an awful, heavy burden that is laid on our shoulders (Matthew 23:4). The word of God becomes seemingly full of impossible standards that we continually fall short of and becomes to us a condemning catalog of all that is wrong with us. Just as knowing the truth sets us free (John 8:32), this kind of deception binds us up, hinders our testimony to others, and works to rob us of the joy, peace and victory that Christ has won for us.
But thankfully God has not left His people in the dark about this aspect of our spiritual warfare. In 2 Corinthians 2:11 Paul, speaking of Satan, declares that "we are not unaware of his schemes." Ephesians 6 makes it plain that the armor of God is fully able to empower us to take our stand against the devil's schemes. So then what does God's word teach us about what He is looking for in our lives? What does it mean to "serve God" and how can we please Him? What schemes does the enemy use against us to confuse, mislead and discourage us in this area? I believe that by God's grace and help, we can find answers to these questions in His word.
