Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Psalm 100:2
We serve God with our lives and the way we do so is by following his example of love by laying down our lives:
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1 John 3:16 KJV
God laid down his life in Christ on the cross… and it was not a pleasant experience. Yet the Bible records this:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;….
Isaiah 53:10 KJV
God was pleased to bruise him cause it brought salvation to us. We to ought to lay down our lives i.e. crucify our flesh gladly, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the brethren.
Where does the power to serve in this way come from? To be able to die to self gladly: When we are anointed with the oil of gladness… the power of the Holy Spirit.
