Serve the Lord Wholeheartedly
by Yulia Kariuki
The other day I was doing fitness with a group of like-minded people who want to keep themselves fit. On that particular day, I was a bit tired after work and was not that willing to follow the exercise routine, but due to my weekly commitment to fitness I decided to go ahead with it.
As I was following the routine, I decided to skip all the jumps so I wouldn’t get tired quickly. After that, I thought I would also minimise my full engagement in the activities, and do only what I felt like doing. But as I was following the exercise my way, I felt the Lord was talking to me. The scripture came to me about serving the Lord wholeheartedly. I felt the Lord was telling me that I could look busy serving Him, as I did with my exercises, and I could blend well with the circumstances or environment I was in so that nobody could say I wasn’t giving a hundred percent, but inside, I knew that whatever I was doing wasn’t to the fullness of my capacity.
The Lord challenged me on that. The Bible tells us that we’re to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, not partially, and we’re the ones knowing whether we’re doing it to the fullness of our abilities and capacity or not. We’re the ones knowing when our service to the Lord is partial or when it isn’t. We may look busy in the eyes of everybody else, like me, following the ‘light’ version of my exercise routine, but God knows our hearts.
The Bible encourages us to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, and that is with full devotion, enthusiasm and complete determination. All of us are gifted and talented in different ways, so, as we decide to offer our gifting to the Lord in service to Him, let’s give our best, withholding nothing. Let’s be the people who would say, as Paul did, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 2:7).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I’m grateful for the gifts You’ve blessed me with, help me to use them to the glory of Your name. Lord, I pray that You’d enable me to serve You wholeheartedly all the days of my life, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Yulia Kariuki was born in Russia and studied translation and interpretation as her profession. She joined Ellel Ministries in 2009, after graduating from university. The same year she met her husband and Bernard and Yulia served on team for many years both in Scotland and at Ellel Grange.
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