“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
I am not very beneficial to society any longer, this is not to say I was so much so before, but I fulfilled a purpose that assisted in a small way the advancement and in a sense the continuation of mankind. But not any longer, not in that respect, and it is not only because I have attained to, by the grace of God, an age where physical limitations have begun to hinder those aspects of my worth, but because I was shown that everything I had attained to, all that I had labored over and for was nothing more that fuel for the fire.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2nd Peter 3:10)
The man that was used to pen those words, also said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.” (Acts 6:2b)
He understood as well as Paul did when he wrote, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Phil. 3:8) and although I cannot place myself in the same league as the least of any of them who have been called by the Lord our God, I have been blessed to be able to see this truth, working for and in the world will profit a man absolutely nothing, for all that work, all those deeds will be counted as wood, hay and stubble, they will be burned up.
Many born-again believers do not want to be called by the Lord, they do not desire to be set apart, to come out of the world and walk alone with Him, apart from the crowd, and so they continue as they are, applying 1st Corinthians 10:31 in their lives, but not for His glory. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
They work at their employment field with vigor, but for the rewards of the world, offering, at best, that ten percent each Sunday morning, thinking that when they retire from the workforce they will serve Him with greater vigor. They accumulate items for the fire, to be left to another when they leave this earth, they become unprofitable. Not all are called to be teachers, but those do not desire the position, nor will they heed the call if it arrives, for in their minds they envision poverty, and a loss of all they have attained, all those things of the world that will be counted as wood, hay and stubble.
They refuse, by their own free will, to die to self.
All those accomplishments of my past, all the certificates and accolades profited the Almighty nothing, they were for vainglory, not His glory, and all the rewards I received were fit only for the fire. “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” (Heb. 5:12)
How long have you walked with the Lord Jesus Christ, and what should you be for His glory by now? The working man, in no matter what field he is employed in, needs to consider those words, for there is a day approaching, if the Lord allows you to live that long, when you will be absolutely useless to the society that you have strived so diligently for, you will be replaced, cast off just like the one who came before you was. You are saved, but only as if by fire.
