Have you ever had a passion in which when you started it and you really enjoyed doing it? You enjoyed it so much that it consumed your life and it was everything that you lived for and would do anything for the cause of it? Has that passion ever, after a while, turned into a burden? Where the passion that you once had turns into an obligation and that thing that you once enjoyed now seems like a menial job that just drains you?

I feel this is how Christianity works sometimes. When we first find God, He moves in us to move and love others and we give into service like there is no tomorrow and we are asking God, “May I?” to serve in anyway possible. May I do this for you? May I? But then, after a while, the fire dies down and what once fills us up is now a burden and we feel that it is draining us to the point we don’t even enjoy doing it anymore. At first we are on this “high” and love it, it is amazing, but then “high” wears off and we are now stuck with this service, this burden of acting as a Christian in the tough situations, and it is hard for us to keep moving forward. We don’t want to quit though because that’s not like us, so we continue to serve but there is no fire like we had before.

If you are anything like me I wondered why I didn’t feel like it did before. I loved the idea of it still but now it was a burden. But isn’t this true? You love your work and the idea of it, you love the idea of being a Christian and what it represents, but in doing it you find so many cares and responsibilities with it, you feel doubt in the idea that you are being effective and before you even go and do it, you already find it burdensome and therefore you don’t want to do it.

We are selfish. How easy is it to do something in which WE will to do. No matter what the task, whether it will be easy or difficult, if its something that WE want to do, we will do whatever it takes, even if people tell us that we cant or we wont, we just laugh in there face and want to prove them wrong because WE want to do it.

We need to start getting Christians to WANT to do GOD’S will as much as other people want to do their own will.

Read Hebrews 8:6-13

It is written in our hearts, it’s in our minds; God’s will for us is there. We should be able to want to do God’s will, not because it is our duty but because we want to do what God wills. We need to completely die to what we want. If there is something that is draining us and its hard to find joy in it but you feel its within God’s will for you to do then we need to stop fighting the urge to say, “Must I?” and give it to God and say once again, “May I?” We are not wanting what WE want but wanting what GOD wants. If we fully give it to God and say, “Yes, Lord, YES!” and allow Him to take control and remind yourself “Thy will be done.” That thing that you once felt as a huge burden will start to look new and precious to you.

We need to go back to the “May I?” thinking of service rather than the “Must I?” One of them is seeking God and the other is seeking our self. We cannot do it alone because then it will become a burden. We need God. Hannah Whitall Smith says, “His strength is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness. Our strength is only a hindrance.” When we submit to God’s will, and pursue that again and not only rely on us, the “May I?” will come more naturally and the “Must I?” will diminish.