IT PAYS TO SERVE JESUS

“Your words have been stout [harsh] against me, saith the Lord.

Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

And now we call the proud happy [blessed]; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.” (Mal 3:13-15)

Let us be careful lest we speak against the Lord in this way. It is not in vain that we the serve the Lord. The fact that God sent His only begotten son as a ransom for your and my sin is evidence that we do not serve Him in vain. Were it not for His grace, we would be without hope, and that is one thing that we need in this wicked world—-hope. Hope that, come what may, there is a better world promised to those who serve Him*. (see Mal. 3:18)

If you're on the brink of foreclosure, divorce, unemployment, a nervous breakdown, disenheritance, disfellowship or any such thing, see it a test. A test of your strength. "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small." (Proverbs 24:10)

In all this, do not turn away from the Lord, trusting that "all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28).

*In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. (Titus 1:2)