Joyful Service

"Reader, let us put this questions—do you serve the Lord with gladness? Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master." — Charles Spurgeon

To serve without gladness is to waste our time.  To serve without love sounds like a clanging cymbal to Jesus (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).  The key to our service is not the acts that we do but rather the heart that we do them with.  Spurgeon continues by saying this:

"Delight in divine service is a token of acceptance.  Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent.  Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have his servants dressed in the livery of joy.  The angels of God serve him with songs, not with groans; a murmur of a sigh would be a mutiny in the ranks.  That disobedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart, and if he seeth that we serve him from force, and not because we love him, he will reject our offering.  Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity."


Wow, I'm feeling a little bit convicted right now.