Good morning! Devotion to start the day!

4/29/2010 Serve from the Heart

From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he'll take charge of sending the rain at the right time .... Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (MSG)

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Repeatedly, the Bible says to "serve the Lord with all your heart." God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve him and others.

How do you know when you're serving God from your heart?

The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you're doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you, or challenge you, or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don't need rewards, or applause, or to be paid, because you love serving in this way.

The opposite is also true: When you don't have a heart for what you're doing, you're easily discouraged.

One characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness: whenever you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don't care about a task, it is unlikely that you'll excel at it.

On the other hand, the highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit.

We've all heard people say, "I took a job I hate in order to make a lot of money, so someday I can quit and do what I love to do." That's a big mistake. Don't waste your life in a job that doesn't express your heart.

Remember, the greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money. The richest man in the world once said, "A simple life in the fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches" (Proverbs 15:16 MSG).

Don't settle for achieving "the good life," because the good life is not good enough. Ultimately, it doesn't satisfy. You can have a lot to live on, and still have nothing to live for. Aim instead for "the better life" - serving God in a way that expresses your heart.

Figure out what you love to do - that which God gave you a heart for - and then do it for his glory! (PDL)

-Amptrooper

4/28/2010
"For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

Christians enjoy the greatest possible success: right-standing with the holy and awesome God of the universe. For this we can take no credit of our own. God made us not only in our physical form but also in our spiritual form. It was His work that transformed us into children of God. This knowledge should give us much security and boldness to do the work He has prepared for us to do.

With everything today remember the Lord. If you are at work or at school or you stay home remember that you are the sons and daughter s of a King! And, work or study as unto him.
Let's also make it a goal to find five things today to thank God for. Not the usual things such as food, life, family good weather and so on. Think of things you do not usually. Try to find the areas of daily life that God's hand is blessing you that maybe you take for granted a lot. Maybe you don't even notice that it is a blessing! :scratch:

The Son is out and shinning bright!

-AmpTrooper