Believing Has Benefits

Today’s scripture: Romans 9:1-5 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Kevin Konkle):

It will be seared in my memory as long as I live. My atheist great aunt whose father had been an old time preacher, was in the final stage of cancer. I was a small child sitting in the corner of that hospital room as my parents and grandmother were leaning over her bed and pleading with her to give her life to Christ. She refused their persistent, loving entreaties, saying, “I haven’t turned to Him throughout my life, it would be wrong to turn to Him now.” Those were the final words I ever heard from her lips.

My great aunt and the Israelites referred to in Romans 9 had a lot in common. My great aunt had been in a preacher’s home, had seen the love and power of God demonstrated time and again. So too the Israelites were underneath the canopy of covenants, the pavilion of patriarchal promises. Yet neither of them could accept the blessings that come with having a personal relationship with Jesus. They never experienced the blessings of having the Comforter, the Peace Speaker, the Great Physician, and the Savior in their daily lives.

Sometimes we as a Christians can get there too. Oh, we believe in Christ, but we stop short of receiving all the benefits of believing. Sometimes we fret and stew over problems when God tells us to “worry about nothing and pray about everything.” We accept what the medical prognosis is even as God whispers, “I am the LORD that heals thee.” We go without material needs when God pleads with us to “ask whatever we have need of and God will provide.” As we curiously deny ourselves the benefits of believing, I hear our loved ones, the LJC pastoral staff, and our church family are encouraging us to “cast all our cares upon Christ for He cares for us.”

At her funeral we sang the song, What a friend we have in Jesus. We didn’t sing it for my departed great aunt. We sang it for us. We needed a friend in that dark hour. As the song says so elegantly, don’t forget the benefits:

Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer!

The next time you need a song in the night, don’t be like the Israelites of Romans 9 and my great aunt that rejected God and all the benefits. Let’s receive all God has for us!

Prayer for the day: Lord, help me to accept you and all the blessings you have for me. Lord, help me to guide others towards you, and all the blessings you have just waiting for them!

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.