Luke 17:7-10 Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table?” Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink?” Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have done only what was our duty.”

This verse is both hilarious and quite convicting for me. How often to I go through life thinking that if I do something for someone else, or even for God, we’re even or they owe me. It’s a good reminder that anything I do is utterly incomparable to what God has done for me. So often I think I can “earn” things of God, but I am completely unworthy of God. Ephesians 2:5 says “By grace you have been saved” Not by my works. This doesn’t mean that I should stop serving God; it means that I should stop trying to earn salvation and understand that it is a gift freely given to me. Not only that but it is my duty to serve Him. I owe God my very existence and yet somehow I still struggle with serving Him with no expectation. I guess it’s the mindset I’ve had growing up. You do something for me, I do something for you, and we’re even. But with God, nothing I do will be worthy of all that He has done for me.  I let myself forget that and even become ungrateful to Him. It should be a privilege to serve the Lord yet so often I let my motives become tainted by my flesh into thinking He somehow owes me something because I was obedient to His will. God’s gifts and rewards are in addition. I should serve God with no expectation of such things and go forth with the understanding that His blessings are just that, blessings. Not wages. I am incapable of earning my salvation. It is by grace I am saved.

Application:  I will write out “By grace I am saved” and a prayer for awareness of the Cross and what He’s done for me at 3 intervals today.