PASTOR AROJO AYODEJI
[biblegateway passage=”Malachi 3:12-18″ display=”Malachi 3:12-18″]
No matter what an individual engages in, every one is quite interested in the profit or what to be gained in it. If we are going to be engaging in anything on earth, we should expect that there has to be gain.
“He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:4-8
God’s gain is also ours and his losses are ours too. Through ignorance or disobedience we might even fall out of God’s plan. It is legit that we expect profit in whatever we engage in. The bible was a consistent book. We are not better than the Israelites or the Jews.
The greatest mystery of God is the humility He showed when he came down in the fashion of man. Some people don’t have a picture of Jesus in their hearts except for the picture we see in calendars and posters. Our life is meant to be so plain that people can see Jesus through us. To be candid, everyone wants gain. God is looking for profit in our lives, directly and indirectly. The best the apostles got in the upper room was speaking in tongues. Until they went out, they never felt the express manifestation of God’s power.
[biblegateway passage=”Ruth 1:9-15″ display=”Ruth 1:9-15″]
In the time of famine, everybody wants a greener pasture. We should pay attention to something important about Ruth. Ruth was attracted to Naomi because of the gain she saw about following God. Despite the fact that the gospel of God to Ruth was not a pleasant one. The thief of the right of Jesus had one of the greatest faith recorded in the bible because he was able to believe in Jesus even when Jesus couldn’t save himself on the cross.
[biblegateway passage=”Genesis 13:9-15″ display=”Genesis 13:9-15″]
Lot was a man that followed Abraham (a follower of God). The advertisement of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah was so enticing to the soul of Lot. Lot at first pitched his tent around the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we later found out that Lot was found among the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The story of Lot is also similar to that of Naomi. The seduction of Sodom had tied Lot down so much that he could not do what God instructed him to do.
Many times, we are not usually content with the dealings of God for our life. A man can be truthful and not love being truthful. If we are going to make gain out of godliness, it has to be with contentment. Every journey as a believer has been simulated in the lifestyle of the old testament Jews. God can promise a rest and man might not enter into it like the way the Israelites missed the promised rest.
“For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
1 Timothy 4:8
The law existing in the land makes it unjust and impossible for Laban to give Rachael to Jacob. The older sister has to get married first.
The scripture does not lie. And it might seem that godliness doesn’t bring profit. If Godliness is going to be a profitable venture for us, it has to come by contentment. We must come into a place where we begin to love the truths of God and not just know and believe it.