When I was younger, I used to do lots of silly things with my little brother. One thing we used to do was whenever one of us wanted the other to help the other out or do a favor, we would say “If you do this for me, I’ll be your servant for the day.” Then for the rest of the day, the person who said that would have to do whatever the other one wanted. It usually ended up just having to make the other person a snack or something like that. Looking back though, I realize how foolish that was because being a servant to my brother for the day ended up being way worse than whatever small favor he did for me. 

I was thinking about this today, and I started thinking what if this was how God acted toward us. What if whenever we asked him for something or He did something for us, he would require something in return from us. I realized that I used to have this mindset before I had a better grasp on the meaning of the gospel. Because if God did require us to do something in return for what He has done for us, then the gospel wouldn’t be true.

Jesus gave his life for me and bore my shame on the cross before I even knew how shameful I was. Jesus loved me before I even knew who He was. He loves everyone in this entire world even knowing that many people will never actually love him back. Jesus came to this earth and saved me because He loved me. That’s it-plain and simple. There’s no catch. I don’t have to do anything because that’s the whole point of him coming to save me. I can’t save myself. I am incapable of fixing my brokenness.

I think it’s easy for us to think that there has to be a catch or that he requires something in return because that is what we are conditioned to in this society. Unconditional love seems like a foreign concept. As much as we don’t want to admit it, we are selfish people.  We love others but we expect them to love us back. We serve others, but it’s hard for us to keep doing things for someone if they never do anything for us. I know this because I’ve experienced this feeling. But that’s not how God operates. And I am SO thankful for this because if His love was conditional, I know I would’t do enough to earn his love. 

So yes, God doesn’t require anything of us. He doesn’t require me to be his servant when He answers my prayer or blesses me or saves me. But the funny thing is that I want to be his servant. I want to devote my life, my thoughts, my words, and my actions to Him. I never wanted to be my little brother’s servant-that felt like a burden. And he hadn’t really done anything that worthy for me to serve him. But I WANT to be God’s servant-for me that is joy and a pleasure to let him reign in my life. God has done everything for me and deserves all the glory and all my praise.