Gratitude and Willingness

Today in Church out preacher  preached on Romans 12:9-21.  The passage begins with "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."  It goes on to list a number of things that a mature Christian should do in the way they live their life. In the message, our preacher focused on verse 16, which says: "Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited."  The phrase "be willing to associate with people of low position" is also translated "be willing to do menial work," which is what our preacher focused on this morning.

Sincere love means being willing to do anything for someone.  If someone tells us that they would be willing to do literally anything for us, of course we should be very thankful, we would show great gratitude towards them.  While people are selfish and sinful and probably at some point would fall short of literally doing ANYTHING for us, Jesus came to earth and did exactly that.  He suffered and died in order to save us from our sins.  Nobody else in the history of the world has shown the love that Jesus showed us, giving not just "anything," but EVERYTHING for us.  John 15:13 says: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

If God loves us THAT much, and sacrificed THAT much, then clearly our gratitude should be displayed in our everyday life.  We should live each an every second of our life as an act of gratitude towards our Lord.  One point that our preacher made was that gratitude leads to willingness.  If we show gratitude for what God has done for us, then we will not be proud and we will "be willing to do menial work" (Romans 12:16).  If God calls us to do something, we should do it. Sometimes the things that God calls us to are not things that bring us glory, or wealth, or fame.  The things God asks us to do aren't always easy, in fact often they are not easy.  Think of missionaries who leave their families, friends and the comforts of home behind to go out and spread God's word around the world, often in places where living conditions are not exactly comfortable.  But it's not about us.  This life is about giving God the glory and living to serve Him.  To show our gratitude, we must respond to God's call with an emphatic "YES!"

It's one of the things I pray every day, that I would hear God's call and have the courage to follow, wherever it may lead.