Why Worthless?

But now that you know God or are known by God, why do you turn back to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?  Galatians 4:9

Many of us have had the dream whereby as an adult you are transported back to high school and you find that you never actually passed that math test and therefore should never have graduated.  It is some 20-30 years later in the audit of the educational records that they (the dreams never reveal who they are) find that you never should have graduated.  And now you have to start all over!!  In the game Chutes and Ladders, you keep going up and up until unfortunately you land on that spot that drives you right back down to where you started your climb.  How frustrating to start over.  Yet that is how the rate race really is. 

Before I had a relationship with God, I was driven by all sorts of motivations.  Motivations to get ahead, motivations to promote myself, motivations to dominate and compete.  Many of these motivations remained with me even after I accepted Christ and knew God.  Even though God provided a whole new reason for living, much of my motivation and conduct remained the same.  Chalk it up to immaturity. Once you know God or rather God knows you, you are driven by a whole different set of motivations: motivation to serve, motivation to glorify God, motivation to know Him, motivation to tell others about Him.  And those motivations are infinitely more rewarding than the “me motivations”.  The world can never satisfy what is a deep longing of the heart.  Last week’s devotional discussed that we can do even the most basic things with the right motivation.  Why would we go back to the old ways when we have Christ?  The joy we receive from knowing God can never be replaced by anything else.  It is weak, it is worthless, it will not satisfy.  Serve Christ and experience true joy, and don’t look back.