Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. Psalm 130:1-4

The psalmist asked a rhetorical question that I think we all know the answer to. However, many outside the faith still keep count. Here’s what I mean. Many will tell you that the good they do outweighs the bad they do. That sounds plausible until you drill down into their lives a bit and uncover bitterness, hatred, fault-finding, envy, slander, lust, and many other sins. Many of those sins are within their thought life. They then realize that perhaps they’re not as “good” as they hoped they had been.

The psalmist answered his own question, an answer that is just as significant now as it was when he wrote it.

He concluded that service to God was a natural response to God’s forgiveness. It’s not a works-based devotion, but a labor of love.

Take a few steps back for a moment and ponder your service to God. Has it become ritualistic and does it feel like you’re going through the motions? Or is it fresh start every day?