Psalm 116:12 How can I repay the LORD
for all his goodness to me?

The Japanese is slightly stronger than the English, saying, “The Lord has been good to me in every detail,” but the point of the verse is the same, and that is gratitude. Many people feel under obligation to God, and they resent it. What a waste! When we realize just how good God has been to us, far better than we could ever deserve, our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude, and we seek to know what we could do to repay Him even a little bit, though we know we could never repay it all. In American churches I’ve often heard the phrase, “surrender to full time service.” The equivalent Japanese expression is “give your body (self) as an offering.” In both cases, the general meaning is to go to seminary and become a pastor, or other church staff. The problem with that is, every Christian should give themselves to God in full time service! That’s not at all to say that everyone is to be a church staff member. Rather, it is to say that whatever our occupation, we are to be committed to God and available to Him for His use and glory. Again, the motive is not obligation, but gratitude. The natural tendency is to feel we deserve much better than we actually do, and that blunts our gratitude. However, when we grasp the overwhelming magnificence of God’s love for us, our love for Him will never stop growing.

This is something I have learned over the years, and I’m still learning it. I run into so many people who have an essentially works-based faith, that I sometimes have trouble even calling faith. It’s like the song from from The Sound of Music says, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good.” That is completely removed from the Bible’s message of grace, because it says, “I must have earned this good thing somehow.” When we understand that what we have earned apart from Christ is eternal destruction, then we begin to understand God’s grace. I have seen people work themselves to exhaustion in the church, seeking to please God and be accepted by Him, not understanding that they are accepted in Christ already. If they were to do even the exact same jobs out of the overflow of gratitude in their hearts for God’s goodness to them, then the exhaustion would be lifted and replaced with peace and joy.

Father, You know the struggle I’ve had with living this out on a practical level, trying to deal with my own laziness and sense of entitlement without becoming legalistic. Thank You for how far You’ve brought me, and that I can rest assured that You will continue to grow and guide me. Help me be fully useful to You in mentoring the spiritually younger Christians around me, never being puffed up but speaking Your truth in love, so that the Body of Christ may be built up for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!