Serving God by Doing What We Enjoy

Readings:
Job 13
I Corinthians 9:1-18

Focus:
I Corinthians 9:16: "Even if I preach the gospel, I can claim no credit for it; I cannot help myself; it would be agony for me not to preach."

Sometimes we think of service for God as something we have to do, but that we won't like it much. We think we have to put in some time doing things for others, maybe working at a homeless shelter or volunteering in some way at church, but probably doing something that we don't actually enjoy that much.

But in actuality God gives us gifts to use in his service, and when we are using those gifts, we are happy. We like what we're doing. As Paul, who was gifted with preaching ability, said, it would be agony to us not to do it. We just need to figure out how what we love to do anyway fits into serving God.

I like to sing. I'm miserable when I'm not singing. So one way I serve God is by helping lead the singing at church. It's a great combination of doing what I like and serving God at the same time. There are many other such combinations for other people, doing other things (for some people maybe it IS working at a homeless shelter). It works well.