Heartily, as unto the Lord!

The other day a friend called and asked me to do a favor that would take up a couple hours of my time. I readily agreed outwardly but inside what I was saying was "I really don't want to do this - it's a dreary rainy day and it's late and I'm tired".
In spite of my feelings I did what she asked me to do.

This morning I was reading Colossians 3 and when I read vs. 17 I was reminded of the attitude I had regarding the help I gave my friend. "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

As I began to think about this I realized the many areas of our lives this speaks to - young wives and mothers who are at home doing routine tasks, people in the work place unsatisfied and hating their jobs, people in Christian service who are burned out and not at all joyous about their service, children or teens who hate school and dread every class, and those times we are asked to help a friend or neighbor. The list goes on and we could all fit into any one of those categories. I would venture to say that most of the time as we perform various tasks we do not give a lot of thought to the fact that it is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus - even our very words. Then in vs. 23 it is said a little differently. "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men..."

Another side of this is that many times we do things to "please men". There is nothing wrong with wanting to please our family, friends and neighbors but when we do something only to get a "praise" or "thank you" from people, we will never find the joy the Lord intends us to have. Many times you will serve and not receive a "praise" or "thank you". Then we find ourselves saying "Well, I am not going to do that again or did they not realize what I sacrificed to do this?" When something is done in the name of the Lord Jesus he says "you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."