-- Wednesday, 7/7/10 -- SHORT TERM VS. LONG TERM BENEFITS -- Judges 2:17

[J.R. & Bonnie Ricks]

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SHORT TERM VS. LONG TERM BENEFITS -- Judges 2:17 NIV

 

Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD's commands.

 

One of the reasons the pagan religions were so appealing to the people of Israel were the short-term benefits.  They were allowed - in fact, encouraged - to be sexually promiscuous.  (Prostitution was one of the ways to get to the pagan version of heaven!)  Increased fertility - for both crops and childbearing - was another benefit the pagans espoused.  As a matter of fact, pagans could do almost anything and be able to find one of the gods that approved of it!

 

The Jews’ being attracted to that kind of thinking is not surprising if you look at our lives today.  Short-term benefits are the primary thing to be desired and achieved. 

• Cheat on your income tax to save a few hundred dollars this year. 
• Curse when something happens to displease you.  It feels good! 
• Fly off the handle and scream at your child when he does something wrong - the catharsis of getting all that emotion out is good for you.  If you didn’t explode every once in a while, you’d have a heart attack or stroke, right? 
• Lie to the police officer when he pulls you over.  You can't afford to have a ticket on your record. 
• Embellish on the number and type of things that were stolen in the burglary of your home.  That insurance company has been ripping you off for years, so this is your chance to get back at them. 
• Just throw your loose change in the collection plate at church.  After all, you need the “folding” money more than the church does, what with the cost of living going up so much. 

We could continue this list indefinitely, but you get the picture… In each and every instance of our lives, the short-term benefit always seems so much better.

 

With God, it’s a different story.  The benefits are long term - eternal, in fact.  And in the great majority of things God requires from you and me, we may not see any short-term benefit at all… or the short-term benefits may have to accumulate to become obvious.  When God tells us to store up treasures in heaven, He intends for us to be building a storehouse of eternal benefits through our daily actions.  He wants us to look beyond this moment to the future, to the long-term effect of our lives.  He wants us to turn away from the selfishness of an ungodly life to the selflessness of living our lives for Him.

 

Are you ready and willing to do that?  You can't take it with you, you know.  So why not start sending those things you can “store up” on ahead?

 

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