Who’s the boss?

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men. Ephesians 6:7

I don’t mind working for God. In fact, I love it. I love when God clearly gives me a task to do, a person to help, something to accomplish. If it’s easy, that’s awesome. But even if it’s hard or it takes me a long time, I’m okay. I mean, God told me to do this thing…I’m just excited to be working for Him!

The problem for me occurs when it’s not so clearly defined that I’m working for God, but working for someone else. I know in my heart that everything I do should be to glorify God, but it’s hard to remember that when I’m serving people. People are messed up. They are ungrateful. They make harsh demands. They are unfair and sometimes mean. They take my work and use it in ways I don’t like and most of the time don’t acknowledge God. All those things cause me to get frustrated, angry, and start serving with less than my whole heart. I begin to decide just who I want to serve and how I want to serve them, pride starts dictating my actions with a helpful boost from arrogance. Pretty soon it doesn’t matter who I’m serving or not, because I’ve got such a horrible attitude that it’s clear that I’m doing it entirely under my own power and nothing of God is shining through.

This verse is speaking to slaves and even for them, it’s clear on who they should be serving. These people belonged to their masters and yet God made it clear that their service was to Him. The same must hold true for me then when I’m serving people that have much less of a hold over my life. It doesn’t matter who I’m working for down here…what matters is that all I do is in service to God. With that in mind, I need to serve with my whole heart, with an attitude that honors God as my savior and king. Other versions of this verse say "serve willingly”, “serve with good will” and “work with enthusiasm”; all good reminders of me of just how I need to change the way I’ve been serving lately.