God calls us to be transformed to worship and serve Him. This daily devotional looks at why we serve Him and how worship is different from service.
Nuggets
- God calls us to serve Him by loving and encouraging others.
- God calls us to worship Him in faith.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Transformed to Perfection series
One thing that we have to remember is, this transformation we are going through isn’t for ourselves. We are being transformed to glorify God.
The first verse of Romans 12 talks about two ways we glorify God. Which way depends on the version we look at. Let’s dig in.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
We’ve looked at Romans 12: 1-2 before — pretty extensively. We broke apart the phrases in the verses when we developed the first job duty for our Disciples’ Job Description.
The Disciple’s Job Description
We looked then at what we were supposed to do. Let’s look now more at the end result — perfection means being.
Transformed to Reasonable Service
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12: 1 KJV).
God calls us to serve Him by loving and encouraging others.
The King James Version translates the last part of the verse a little differently than the Christian Standard Bible does. What was Paul talking about when he said reasonable service? Maclaren defined reasonable service as “… a service or worship rendered by the inner man, transacted by the mind or reason, and thus, as indicating the part of our nature which performs it, is reasonable.”
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Hmmm. Clear as mud, right?
Elaine-speak. Service is an act based on belief in God that comes from a response of worship by acknowledging His power through our submission. When we serve God, it should be at heart level. It can be by being or doing. Whichever, it shows what our character is.
Our service is motivated by God’s mercies. Fiddes said this was “… from the consideration of those great things our good and merciful God has done for.”
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What has God done for us?
- He created us — even though He knew we would be disobedient.
- He designed the Plan of Salvation to restore our relationships with Him.
- He allows us to choose to follow Him, rather than making us worship Him.
- He is patient when we are disobedience and forgives us when we ask.
- He provides for us.
Do we need to go on?
Because He has done so much for us, Guinness said that “God always must be served, and that by all. Angels refused to serve Him in heaven and were cast down to hell. Man refused to serve Him and was driven out of Paradise.”
Whatever way God chooses for us to serve Him must be holy. Guinness said that we can learn from the priests what is meant here.
Sacrifices were killed then cleaned. (Yes, this meant cutting.) After it was washed, it was consumed by the fire on the altar.
We are cleaned by the precious blood of Jesus and regenerated. As we navigate the Sanctification Road, God cuts out the sin in our lives.
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Glossary
Birch talked about God expecting a reasonable service from us, but that it would not be something impossible. He was right when he said that, at times, we think our relationship with God is just between God and us. We don’t think about — or don’t want to think about — showing our love to others.
We can do little things for others that can mean lots to them. An encouraging word, showing sympathy, celebrating victories, sharing in times of sorrow — those are all reasonable services that we can do.
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I know. My Ladies didn’t look on these as gifts from God either. But they are. They are ways we can all — regardless of age or abilities — use to engage others to show them God’s love.
Stanley thought that reasonable should be equated with intentional. We need to choose to follow God with every fiber of our being.
In order to be of service to God, we have to acknowledge that He is Truth. That means we can put our faith and trust in His Word as being true. Therefore, we can follow His directions.
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To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Bottom line, we are to serve God whatever way He calls us to serve Him. It will be best for us, and He will equip us so that we can accomplish all He has in store for us.
Transformed to Worship
“… this is your true worship” (Rom. 12: 1 CSB)
God calls us to worship Him in faith.
The Christian Standard Bible translated the word as worship. Well, service is a form of worship.
But worship has a different focus. Worship is our personal or corporate response of admiration (confession, thanksgiving, praise, etc.) based on our attitude to God’s presence and our imitation of His character.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Worship is directed toward God. Service is directed toward God and others.
Our worship has to be a product of our faith. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
Howels said faith is both a duty and a privilege. It is a duty because we are all expected to worship God. It is a privilege because we are not worthy to approach God on our own. We need the precious blood of Jesus to cover our sins in order to approach God.
We are not entitled to worship God, but we aren’t disqualified because we have committed sins for which we have asked forgiveness. Howels wrote, “In His mercy, however, He accepts the weakest offering, proceeding from a contrite heart; while, at the same time, the blessing of perfection is reserved for His family, and He will assuredly make them what He Himself would have them to be for ever and ever.”
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Worship is directed toward God. Service is directed toward God and others.
Our worship has to be a product of our faith. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
Howels said faith is both a duty and a privilege. It is a duty because we are all expected to worship God. It is a privilege because we are not worthy to approach God on our own. We need the precious blood of Jesus to cover our sins in order to approach God.
We are not entitled to worship God, but we aren’t disqualified because we have committed sins for which we have asked forgiveness. Howels wrote, “In His mercy, however, He accepts the weakest offering, proceeding from a contrite heart; while, at the same time, the blessing of perfection is reserved for His family, and He will assuredly make them what He Himself would have them to be for ever and ever.”
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See what Howels said? God will forgive us — but He also expects us to turn from our sins. That is true repentance. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Back on track. Worship.
Edwards reminded us that “… the words imply that no feeling towards God is adequate worship.” We must humbly approach God the Father and submit to Him. We know we are only justified through faith.
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Glossary
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Worship or service, the focus is on God.
Making the Connections
Howels made a great observation. There are so many times that we feel unworthy of approaching Jesus to be our Savior. Don’t sweat it. Jesus will come to us.
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Jesus wants us to know forgiveness of our sins so we can serve and worship God. It is about God getting the glory.
Really, it isn’t just about our getting changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. Neither is it about us gaining Heaven and missing hell.
It is about us giving glory and honor to our Creator.
How Do We Apply This?
- In order to serve God, we must have a renewed mind — we must be living in His Will and obedient to Him.
- The spirit of devotion must be at the heart level. We can’t be performing the service because the worldview sees it as loving others.
- God’s children need to have spiritual graces instead of worldly morals.
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Glossary
We transform from being focused on ourselves to worshiping our Creator. Instead of serving the world, we begin to serve our Heavenly Father.
Father God. We want to be like You. We want to be transformed from sinners into having Your character. We want to worship and serve You. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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