Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
-Matthew 7:21 (NRSV)
Devotional:
AS the only son of the family, I assumed my father's role when he was away from our village in China. We owned parcels of farmland and hired a roving laborer to help during the planting and reaping seasons. One day when it rained, the man did not finish seeding the crop of corn on one parcel of land. I was not happy; and since my father was not home, I talked to the worker harshly. When my father returned, I believed he would commend me for what I had done. Instead he chided me for scolding the hired hand; if the man had left, we would have been in big trouble. I had not done what my father wanted; I had not done things his way.
Now that I am a born-again child of God and read the Bible in my daily devotions, I realize that we must serve God according to God's will and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Choosing to serve in our own ways is an affront to God. We are meant to seek to know God's will, which God will reveal to us. "It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
