Failure and Success: True Service

...not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. -Colossians 3:22-24

Any serious-minded Christian may at some time find himself wondering whether the service he is giving to God is the best it could be. He may even have times of doubting, and fear that his toil is fruitless and his life empty....

The church has marked out certain work and approved it as service acceptable to God, and for the most part the church has been right. But it should be kept in mind that it is not the kind or quantity of work that makes it true service-it is the quality.

Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then....

It would be a shock to most of us to learn just what God thinks of our breathless activity, and a greater shock to many to find out the true quality of our service as God sees it. For not all religious activity is accepted of God, not even when it appears to produce results and get things done. The Lord seeth not as man seeth....

In Christian service motive is everything, for it is motive that gives to every moral act its final quality. The Next Chapter After the Last, 69-70.

"Lord, I need that reminder: 'Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then.' I'll serve today with that in mind. Amen."