What Does God Expect???

I was driving the other morning thinking and this question came up… God, what do you expect of me? I listened for a while, and searched my heart for some scriptures, and the answer I came up with was a bit disturbing. “Nothing”… Nothing? How can this be? All that you did for me and you expect nothing in return? I’ve often asked God, what do you want from me. It was a cry coming from a broken surrendered heart that’s given all that is known to give.

But here’s the switch, No where I can remember does the scripture say that we are expected to do anything for Him. We have Reasonable acts of service, but not Expected acts of service… Jesus said if you love me, keep my commands. So our service or work or doing, comes not from our ability to please God, because He’s already pleased, but from a heart of love. Just like any relationship, if you come in with high expectations, you will be severely disappointed. Even the best marriage counselors teach that you must lower your expectations to a reasonable level, then your mate will always go above and beyond… Even in my own relationship, if my mate never changes for the rest of her life, if she never gets any better at being a mom, a helpmate, a spouse, I am totally okay with that. Because I didn’t get into the relationship expecting her to change. I chose her for who she is… not even for who she will be, or could be. But my love for her is so unconditional, she doesn’t have to change for me to approve. Now were there some things that needed to be changed when we first got together? Yeah, but it wasn’t me being conditional with my love that caused her to change. Her testimony even this morning as we talked was that my Unconditional love moved her to a point that she wanted to change. My desires became her desires because she wanted to be one with me. I believe that God’s love is enough to cause us to change. It is His Kindness that leads us to repentance. NOT His disappointment.  I haven’t found the scripture yet that says He gets disappointed with us. Maybe I just haven’t read enough. But here’s the point. We do because we love. Not because we have to. Not because if we don’t we won’t be thought good enough. We can never be good enough. If we could why would we need a savior? What I’m not saying is that we stop doing good, but that we look at our motives and the way we motivate people to serve and connect with God. If we let them see His great love, just like my bride, we will be motivated not by fear, but a desire to be one with this great love. There is a lie that we’re not doing enough for God. True we need to be stirred to good works, but I don’t think the writer of Hebrews was talking about going to more church services, or having to feel condemned for missing a prayer meeting.

            Jesus is calling us up to Him, not to the church, or to service, but to Himself. His call is to Know Him first, then serve man second. When we continually mix those up, we end up tired, confused and torn. May we get back to putting Him first and serving Him out of a true heart in full assurance of faith. Not because it is expected of us, but because of our response to His great love.