As Christians, we need to be aware that there is always within us, a war raging. That war is the flesh raging war against the Spirit and the Spirit raging war against the flesh. At our worst, we can clearly see this battle. Nevertheless, concealed within our hidden motives, that once clear battle is hazy at best.

The flesh wants the throne of our lives, and it will stop at nothing to assert itself to be in control. We need therefore; to be careful in concern with our desires and motives when it comes to our Christian "duty" and "service." For the desire in itself may be a good one, but often times the motivation behind that desire can be deceiving. It may profit us greatly to examine the purity in which we work for and serve God.

One may serve God out of guilt or obligation to what He feels God would approve of. One may do His work because it makes him or her feel good about themselves. One may strive in their service because they hope that God will approve of them. One of the worst motivations for serving God can be found in doing "penance." We don’t work to earn acceptance, we already have that completely because of Christ. Our Christian service is not for US; it is always to bring God glory.

This is where it gets confusing. The flesh will do anything, and I mean anything, to build itself up. If it has to do good works, well then, it will and can. The flesh can easily acclimate itself to most situations in order to bring about its desired result. The flesh is deceptive because it does things that have the "appearance" of godliness. The flesh will also attack us on both ends. It is a master at judging us and defending us. The flesh will do both. It will tell you that you are worthless and unlovable by God unless you are behaving or performing perfectly. And just as quickly it will tell you that you are deserving, you have your rights, you are your own and you can handle things better than God can.

We must take extra care not to desire to serve God to be good. He requires of us righteousness, not goodness. Therefore, He does not call us into Christian service based on good or evil, right or wrong. What He is looking for is righteousness, and when He sees Jesus in us, He sees righteousness. See the motives of the flesh are always based on good as oppose to evil, and right as oppose to wrong. However, those assumptions are relative at best. If as a parent, you asked your child to vacuum the carpet, but they made the bed instead, would making the bed be bad in theory? No, but it missed the mark because it was not what you asked them to do. This is why we must pay close, close attention to God and what He would have us do. He knew that we could do nothing in and of ourselves that would bring Him glory unless we had righteousness. That is why He has given us the righteousness of Christ.

When we serve God, we do it because of the new life of Christ we have in us. We do it because He works and wills us to do it. We work for God because He prepares those works and goes before us in them. He equips and prepares us. His spirit witnesses to our spirit His will and plan. We give out what He has given us, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others in order to bring Him glory. This is why we cannot boast about our works, we can only boast in God. Our new man wants all the glory to go to God, and its motives are always righteous, always working out of obedience to its life source.

The flesh however, waging its war, wanting its control, is always at work to take our focus off of God and its motives are always self-serving, because they are never done in righteousness. The flesh will serve God as long as it is in control and it gets the glory and it gets its way. The flesh tricks us into thinking we are serving God out of faithfulness by getting us so busy working that we are not listening. We are not listening to the still small voice of God who is always calling us to abide in Him.