Motives Matter

This may surprise you, but there are many types of "service" that are condemned in the Bible.  We should not "serve" in order to be good enough for God (Luke 18:9-14), to get something from God (Luke 15:22-32), to pay God back (1 Corinthians 13:1-3), to impress others (Matthew 6), to belong (Acts 8:15-23), because we think God needs us (Luke 10:38-42), or to demonstrate that we don't need God (Mark 9:14-29).  (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax) 

Christian Service is an act of grace.

Christian service requires thought, discipline, wisdom, and hard work.  It may lead to suffering.  Mostly, though, it requires God's grace in our lives so we can both want to and are able to serve him well (Philippians 2:13).  Even the Apostle Paul recognized that he needed God first and most.  "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." (1 Corinthians 15:10)  Do you want to serve God well?  Stop and pray.  Are you serving God well?  Stop and praise.  God deserves the glory...not you...or me.

Christian service is an act of love.

1 Corinthians 13:3 says "If I give all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."  Let that sink in for a moment.  Apparently, it is possible to donate everything you own and for God to be unimpressed by your service.  Love is a key ingredient!  Without love, our service is like a "noisy gong" or "clanging cymbal."  "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Christian service is an act of joy.

2 Corinthians 8:1-4 stands in stark contrast to 1 Corinthians 13:3.   What does love look like in action?  It is an "overwhelming joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others."   "It is not for duty's sake or right for right's sake.  It is not a resolute abandoning of one's good with a view solely to the good of the other person.  It is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God's grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person." (John Piper, Desiring God)