What's Your Motivation?

I'm a fairly regular reader of Oswald Chamber's devotional, "My Utmost for His Highest", and if I'm honest, there are quite a few days where I need to read and re-read to understand what He's saying. Sometimes it still goes over my head, but other days, I feel like He is able to speak a truth directly into my life-- in a way that articulates my thoughts so clearly. Today was one of those days.

The title is "Determination to Serve" and he writes, "If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another."

Later he writes, "Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake."

There were times in Ghana when I was so frustrated with the kids' ingratitude-- sometimes to the point where I wanted to give up, pack up, and head home early. So when I read this tonight, I had an "I get it!" moment. I was once again reminded that God has given us the ultimate example of love and forgiveness in Jesus dying for us when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). If we are able to remind ourselves of this and our unworthiness, perhaps we can better love others and serve God-- not expecting anything in return, but only wanting to give back to God out of love and a grateful heart.