Debt and Duty

Luke 17:7-10 7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

My Father,

I am Your servant.  You owe me nothing.  You call me to serve You.  I serve with joy.  

Sometimes, I compose a list of things that I think I have done for You.  I want to show You my list and tout my accomplishments.  I want to boast of my "righteous" deeds.  I want to say, "Look what I have done!  Now I need something from You!"

But nothing I have done in Your name can ever hold You in debt to me!  No amount of obedience or service can ever fill a ledger with enough self-contrived holy acts to demand Your debt to my deeds of duty.  I cannot hold You in debt to me!  You are God and You owe no man anything.

Father, release me from counting!  I count my acts, my hours, my money given, seekers at an altar, church attendance, enrollment, my plenty, and my lack.  All too often, I use my counting to demonstrate my supposed worth to You.  Then I turn and want to spend my little pile of duty to purchase acts of favor from a God who somehow owes me!  Yikes!  

Father, release me from a mentality of entitlement. Free me from the unspiritual logic that demands Deity duty to me!  You owe me nothing!  

Thank You for loving me freely, without restraint, with optimism and abundant grace.  I abandon my attempts to influence You by pretending that You owe me.  I offer You my worship, my love, my thanksgiving, and my debt of joyful service to my Lord and Savior.  

Thank You for jarring me out of thinking that I can demand debt of You.  I am Your servant, and I choose to serve You with love rather than a personal sense of debt or duty.  Release me from these temporal motives that obstruct my soul from receiving Your unconditional gift of love.  

I am Your servant, and You are my God.

Amen.