Do you ever feel like you work really heard, yet people rarely seem to notice? If you’ve felt that way, you are not alone. Many of us feel like we put in more than our fare share of work, but we don’t get praised or thanked for it like we should. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that God doesn’t notice; or worse, that he doesn’t care. He just wants us to “do more things” for him.

Two Different Sons

Jesus tells a story in the New Testament about two sons. Both sons worked for their father, but both of them had a very different story. It’s the well-known story of the prodigal son. We are all familiar with the story—how the younger son asks for his inheritance and leaves. He goes out and lives a life of luxury and partying. Then we know how he comes to the end of himself and finally comes back home. We usually focus on the prodigal son, but we often neglect the other son in the story.

Two Different Choices

The older brother in the story works for his father as well, but he stays faithful and does what he’s supposed to. When his younger brother comes back and his father requests a party to celebrate, the older brother is outraged. In fact, he refuses to come inside for the party. His father tracks him down and asks him why he won’t come to the party. Notice the older son’s answer.

All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

Luke 15:29,30 NLT

Notice the word slaved. The older brother shows how really feels about all these years working for his father. I can imagine that those words were a dagger to his father’s heart. His father didn’t want him slaving for him; he simply wanted him to enjoy the work that they did as a family.

Slaving for God

When my husband, Matt, brought these verses and words to my attention a little while ago, we sat and talked about it for a little bit. I think that we as Christians act the same way to God sometimes. We treat the work he gives us to do as toil and labor and view ourselves as slaves to the work he’s called us to…almost as if he’s a taskmaster, and we have no choice but to obey him.

Does it ever feel like you’re slaving for God? Like he’s your taskmaster, instead of your father? I think that’s what Satan tries to convince us of—that we’re just slaves, doing what God wants us to do; and we have to be miserable to make him happy.

That’s now how God views his relationship with us at all. God calls us sons and heirs. There’s a big difference between a slave and an heir! God says that he has adopted us into his family.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Read the verses below and take a moment to really think about these words:

 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Romans 15-17 NLT

I love those rich words. We are adopted as God’s own children and have all the privileges that come with being an heir of God. What do heirs receive? They receive all the privileges that come from being born into that family. In God’s case, that’s a lot of privileges!

We can choose to live like a slave or we can choose to live like a son.

The Choice is Ours

We can go through this life choosing one of two ways to live out our life in Christ—as a slave or as a son. The choice is ours. God’s already said what we are, but we have to choose to live that way.

For More Encouragement

A great song that goes along with this post is Zach Williams’ song, No Longer Slaves, or check out my post, When You Can’t Feel God in Your Life.