God Whom I Serve with My Spirit

With My Spirit

(Romans 1:8-10)

People serve God with different motives. Some do it for their own righteousness, some out of fear of being rejected, some for honor, and others for power. But what God seeks is a sincere mind that desires to please Him.

1. The Motive of Service
Paul was a man with a pure motive. Satan continually assailed Paul with those who sought to hinder him. Yet Paul never abandoned his pure motive, for his relationship with God was clear and unshakable. His conviction was this: “I exist for the Lord who called me!” With such awareness of himself, he regarded even his life and every breath as belonging to the Lord. To Paul, becoming a servant of the Lord who gave Himself for all humanity was only right.

2. Responsibility and Sincerity
People often say, “If I don’t do it, someone else will.” But Paul was different. He regarded the Lord’s work as his own. If the gospel was to be preached to the ends of the earth, he believed he must be the one to bear that work. He prayed unceasingly for the churches far away, sought the way to reach them in order to serve them, and opened his heart to them first with sincerity. If his motives had been fleshly, in such a hostile age, he would never have chosen such a harsh and perilous road.

3. In a Personal Relationship with God
Paul, too, once believed that keeping a series of regulations in the flesh was the way to serve God. But within the gospel, he became one who served God with his spirit. For him, what mattered now—more than the righteous cause he once upheld—was his personal relationship with God. To know the heart of God and to offer his life willingly for what pleases Him—this became his true act of service to God. We, too, are in the gospel. Now, with our spirit, with our sincerity, let us serve God.

Overseer Sung-Hyun Kim