Serving God Means Depending on His Strength

What does it mean to “serve God”?

It’s one of the most commonly used phrases in Christian life. We hear it in prayers, read it in Scripture, and speak it in conversation “I just want to serve the Lord.” But few questions are more important, and more misunderstood. What kind of service honors God? And what kind of service dishonors Him?

The Bible commands us to serve God. Psalm 100:2 says, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Deuteronomy 10:12 calls us to “serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Paul calls himself a “servant of Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:1), and Peter does the same (2 Peter 1:1).

Yet in Mark 10:45, Jesus Himself says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So what gives?

A Red-Flag Kind of Service

There is a wrong way to serve God. And Scripture lights up that path with warning signs.

• Acts 17:25: “He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything.”

• Psalm 50:12, 15: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.”

• Romans 4:4–5: “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

These are strong words. They tell us that God does not need us. We don’t serve Him because He lacks anything. And we don’t “pay Him back” for grace. We couldn’t. Not now, not ever.

To serve God as if He were needy, limited, or dependent on us is to profoundly misunderstand His nature. God has no gaps to fill. He is the Giver, not the receiver.

The Right Kind of Service

So, how do we serve a God who doesn’t need anything?

The Bible gives us the answer in 1 Peter 4:11:

“Whoever serves, [let him do it] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

We serve God not for Him, but from Him. That is, God-glorifying service doesn’t come from our own self-powered efforts. It comes through moment-by-moment dependence on the strength He gives.

We are not contractors delivering results to a client. We are more like conduits vessels through which God displays His own power, grace, and mercy to others.

Paul put it perfectly in 1 Corinthians 15:10:

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Every Step is a Gift

This is the paradox of Christian service we work hard and every effort is a gift of grace.

Serving God is not about earning something or repaying something. It’s about being swept up into the purposes of God, with God Himself providing the power.

In fact, if we tried to “repay” God through our service, we’d only end up further in debt because every step of obedience is itself a gift from Him. Our “payback” only deepens our dependence. And that’s a glorious place to be.

As John Piper once said, “We will never not be debtors to grace.” For all eternity, every act of joy-filled service will be evidence of God’s goodness, not ours.

Living Under the Waterfall

Jesus warns, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). Why? Because to serve something is to orient your entire life around receiving from it.

To “serve money” is to live for the benefits it promises. You calculate every move based on how to gain what money offers.

In that sense, to “serve God” is to orient your whole life to receive from Him to position yourself under the waterfall of His provision, grace, peace, power, and joy.

This kind of service doesn’t put God in our debt it puts us in His arms.

And it’s from that place that we go and serve others not to prove our worth, but to point to His.

What It Looks Like Today

So, when you teach a Sunday School class, share the gospel with a neighbor, change diapers, give generously, or pray for a suffering friend, how do you know if you’re truly “serving God”?

Ask yourself this:

• Am I doing this in dependence on His strength?

• Am I enjoying His promises as I serve?

• Am I pointing others to His sufficiency, not mine?

If so, you’re serving rightly. And in doing so, God is glorified, and you are strengthened.

A recent Barna study found that 76% of Christians associate service with “doing things for God,” yet only 32% saw service as “receiving from God in order to serve others.” That’s a massive gap and one we must close.

True service doesn’t begin with us. It begins with grace. And it ends with glory not ours, but His.

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