John Piper Devotional

Don’t Serve God

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a “help wanted” ad. Neither is the call to Christian service.

God is not looking for people to work for him. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

What does God want from us? Not what we might expect. He rebukes Israel for bringing him so many sacrifices: “I will accept no bull from your house. . . . For every beast of the forest is mine. . . . If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine” (Psalm 50:9–12).

But isn’t there something we can give to God that won’t belittle him to the status of beneficiary?

Yes. Our anxieties.

It’s a command: “Cast all your anxieties on him” (1 Peter 5:7). God will gladly receive anything from us that shows our dependence and his all-sufficiency.

Christianity is fundamentally convalescence. Patients do not serve their physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions. The Sermon on the Mount is our Doctor’s medical advice, not our Employer’s job description.

Our very lives hang on not working for God. “To one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Romans 4:4–5).

Workmen get no gifts. They get their due. If we would have the gift of justification, we dare not work. God is the workman in this affair. And what he gets is the glory of being the benefactor of grace, not the beneficiary of service.