Somehow, we have always had it ingrained in the recesses of our minds that we had to do things for God and get really involved in church activities in order to get God to like us and do things for us. This meant that the answers to our prayers had a direct relationship with how much we had ‘invested’ in actually pleasing God. When praising God, we had to dance really hard like David danced for God to notice us and our shout of “Amen” had to be the loudest. And then to cap it up, we had to be actively involved in one or more church service units and be in church every other day. These are things and reading the verse below convinced me the more that serving God is not really about things:
“Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God’s revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people. “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?” God’s asking. “Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? When you come before me, whoever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that— all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship? “Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings— meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning”. Isaiah 1: 10 -11(MSG)
When we become children of God, serving God in any area that we have grace to serve should be as natural as breathing is to any living thing. We don’t serve or do things because we need things, rather it is because He is our father and we are His children and the Kingdom is our Father’s Kingdom. Most times, we clearly miss the point that what God really wants is just for us to love Him. Every other sacrifice or service should just flow out of our lives as a result of our love for our Father and the relationship we have with Him. If God was interested in things, Uzzah would not have died when he tried to stop the ark from falling (2Samuel 6:7), after all he was doing a good thing.
Every segment of our lives as God’s children should form part of our worship to God and there should be no compartmentalization into spiritual life and secular lives. God created us that we might be worshippers, but we have become everything else but worshippers. We have put working for God ahead of worshipping God.
I will end with this quote from a previous blog post.
“God created us for His pleasure. Our Christian service is also a part of us that should give Him pleasure. If I experience God’s blessings or not in the course of the service, I will still serve Him. God’s blessings are completely free and there is no way I can pay for all that He has done and all that He will do for me. Relating this to the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Pharisee came on the platform of all that he had done for God, while the Publican came ‘Just as I am without one plea’. We know the rest of the story. In Matthew 7: 7 – 8, God did not say you should go and ‘labour in the vineyard’ before coming to Ask, Seek and Knock. If I need anything, I can simply go to God as my Father and just Ask”
Chidi Ukandu's Blog 
Nice clear message. Looking at this from another perspective, it is unfortunate that messages in the past 2 decades or more have molded believers into thinking church activity (which I now call the “Martha Ministry”), is actually working for God. I recently had to admonish a sister, letting her know that the work of ministry isn’t music group in church, but rather the marketplace.
As a church, we have been too myopic in our understanding of what ministry really is, little wonder you hardly find believers in positions of authority and influence in the marketplace. This is akin to the parable of the weeds. While believers slept (by encumbering themselves with church activities, the enemy sowed weeds resulting in unbelievers occupying critical positions of authority and influence in the marketplace.
We need to arise from our slumber and focus on what is needful, realizing that God’s desire is for our entire lives to bring him pleasure, always remembering his admonition in Col.3:17NLB (And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus…)
Very aptly spoken Sir. I pray that believers will wake up and start moving in the right direction.