Love Because: Devotions for In-Law RelationshipsSýnishorn

Love Them for an Eternal Reward

What if the divine accolade, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” was going to be given to you only in terms of your relationship with your in-laws? Mercifully, we serve a God who sees the breadth and depth of the entirety of our testimonies.

Nevertheless, what if these words were confined to how we had stewarded this relationship? Would it change our behavior, our actions, our words? If so, what’s stopping us from changing those things now? Living in light of eternity should be a sentiment that shines out through all the facets of our lives. When it doesn’t, we are called to bring that area into submission to Christ.

We can begin to serve the Lord more by serving ourselves less, by looking to the interests of others over our own preferences, and by asking for His help in doing so. There have been many occasions in which I might have misspoken were it not for the aforementioned thought: What if Jesus’ words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” were going to be given to me only in relation to ______________?

We can’t live lives enslaved and preoccupied by momentary hurts that cause us to be self-focused and today-focused. We need to be heavenly-minded, adopting Jesus’ call to be a servant to all, so that we might one day hear ourselves defined by these words from the very Master we came to serve.

Application: Pause today before you respond to anything. How would you live and respond differently if hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” were based on your response to each personal challenge?