How to Serve God
If you live your personal life to please God in all aspects, you are worshiping the Lord and serving Him only (Matt. 4:10). If you are no longer living to please self but to serve others, you have become like Christ (Rom. 15:2-3). If you are putting other people’s interests and needs before your own, if you are more concerned about others than yourself, if you are the last to be served, you have Christ’s nature formed in you (Gal. 4:19). Living to please self is selfish. Living to please others is selfless or unselfish.
Jesus came to show us how to overcome evil by doing good for the glory of the Father (Rom. 12:21; Col. 3:17). He came to show us how to be servants of others and how to practice selflessness instead of selfishness. He said the greatest among us will be those who serve the most (Matt. 23:11). This theme is prominent throughout the New Testament (Matt. 20:26-28; 25:40; Mark 9:35; 10:43-45; Luke 8:21; 1 Cor. 10:24).
Loving God is serving God. Serving God is worshiping God. Praising God is thanking God, being specific about the things for which we are praising Him. Webster’s Dictionary defines praise to God as the act of glorifying God with song or other acts of service. We can sing praises to God by singing songs that tell what great things God does for us (Eph. 5:19). We can praise Him with our mouths by being ready always to give a good answer to others as to why we live the way we do for God (1 Peter 3:15). We can praise Him with our mouths by not gossiping or speaking evil of others, and by not swearing or using vulgar language (1 Peter 4:11). Yet few people know refraining from swearing is worshiping and praising God.
We are to worship God by pleasing Him in all respects. That is how we praise His name. Confessing our faults to one another is worshiping God. We can worship or glorify God by the way we dress, or we can serve the devil by the way we dress. We can worship, glorify or praise God by the way we think or we can worship Satan by the way we think. Can we please God by being happy? We can please God just by having a good day for His glory (Matt. 5:16). Can we have a good day if it isn’t a day lived to please God? Of course not. It is God’s word that shows us the Way to have a good day.
Are you really concerned about what God thinks in every area of your life? How many of your old ways are you holding on to? Are you coming short of entering the kingdom (Rom. 3:23)? Are you pressing on and continuing to force your way into the kingdom of God (Luke 16:16)? The Israelites were not able to enter because of disobedience (Heb. 3:19; 4:1-3, 6, 11). Are you seeking God by doing good to please Him?
Serving God and seeking God, praising and worshiping God, pleasing God, living for God, walking like God, talking like God and imitating God—by imitating Jesus Christ’s Way of life (Eph. 5:1; 1 Cor. 11:1)—is the answer to the eternal riddle of the mystery of God. It is how to be a doer of the word of God (James 1:22; Luke 8:21; 6:46).
Closely observe how Abraham and his nephew, Lot lived (Gen. 17:1-2; 18:19; 19:1-3). Study the eternal message given by the prophets of old from God. All God ever wanted from His creation was for everyone to keep His Ways by practicing acts of righteousness one to another. He only wants people to serve Him by practicing acts of kindness, charity, mercy, compassion, honesty and justice (Micah 6:8; Deut. 10:12-13, 17-20). He wants us to live at peace with all men as much as is possible, and in so doing, serve Him (Heb. 12:14; 1 Peter 3:11-12).