There is an enormous difference between God’s Spirit and the flesh. God’s way is the way of freedom. He is not an oppressor. He is freedom itself. The flesh, on the other hand, is a tyrant. Its goal is to enslave us in lust, control us with addiction, and disable our ability to function constructively.
The choice of who we serve comes with an enormous consequence: the reward of an inheritance from the Lord for walking in the Spirit, or slavery and death if we follow the false counterfeits offered by the sinful flesh.
If we adopt the perspective of Colossians 3:23-24 and understand the nature of our choice, obedience can become the path of least resistance. We aren’t being asked to do something against our deepest desires. We are being asked to do something that actually fulfills our deepest desires. We have opportunity to see the reality that the fleshly desires we are asked to set aside actually lead to self-destruction.
The world promises everything and delivers nothing. God promises that if we will be faithful in the small things of life, he will reward us greatly. God will count being faithful in small things as service directly for him, because that is who we are serving.
This requires faith. We get to determine neither the timing nor the nature of these rewards. We are promised that his rewards are beyond our capacity to imagine.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
– Colossians 3:23-24