With No Strings Attached

"One of the most powerful sermons I ever heard closed with these challenging words, “Why should we come to Jesus Christ?  Not for our own benefit.  We should honor and serve and love and give our lives to Jesus Christ even if we were to go to hell at the end of the road…because He is worthy!”  (Paris Reidhead, Ten Shekels and a Shirt, www.sermonindex.org) Christ loved us without expecting us to love Him in return.  As He lay dying on the Cross, those He had come to save were mocking and spitting in His face.  Can we love Him the way He loved us?  Can we surrender everything to Him without expecting anything in return?I have discovered throughout my life that our Lord cares very deeply about the dreams and desires of our heart, and He takes great joy in meeting them in His own perfect time and way.  Surrendering to Him is not drudgery, but delight.  As we abide in Him, He changes and shapes the desires of our heart to match with His desires for us, as it says in Psalm 37:4.  Following His pattern doesn’t leave us with a second-rate version of life on this earth, but a far more glorious, beautiful, and fulfilled one.  And yet, even though having the specific desires of our heart fulfilled is very often a byproduct of surrender to Christ, it cannot be our reason for pouring out our all upon His precious feet.  Our reason must be passionate love for Him, with no strings attached." -Devotions with Leslie Ludy "No Strings Attached"

While doing my quiet time the other morning I read this blog devotional. It made me stop and think. It made me think so much that it is just now that I have been able to gather my actual thoughts and apply this to my life. I got to thinking about my own personal life and how many times I do a check list "for" Christ in order to get whatever I expect from Him in exchange. VAIN or USELESS works. Instead of doing out of love for, or because He is worthy, I do for selfish gain.  Just like the devotional says,  Surrender to God is not drudgery, but delight. My prayer for myself is that I would pour out my all at my Saviors precious feet because of my passionate love for Him, expecting nothing in return. WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED.