The Benefits!

Have you ever worked a job (or for the students too young to work, gone to a school or played a sport) that offered killer benefits?  Not just medical benefits, although those are crucial when you have kids, but things that you may think are beneficial that others might not?  I had such a job...

 

When I was 18 years old I was hired to work at the front desk of a fancy salon in Rocklin.  It was minimum wage, with fluctuating weekly hours, and I was surrounded all day with beautiful women who had enough money to come every week for their nails or every month for their hair.  But let me tell you about the benefits...  I was able to get all salon products for half the price and paid a fraction of the cost whenever I wanted my hair done or eyebrows waxed.  IT WAS AMAZING!  Girls- you know what I am talking about.  It has only been recently that I have really missed that salon.  I miss the people, I miss the morning drives up the hill when the sun was rising, I miss getting dressed up everyday, and I miss- oh, how I miss- the ability to buy shampoo and conditioner that aren't found on Walmart shelves for under $5.  My hair misses those fancy products, it tells me every other day when I straighten it and I find more and more knots and split ends.  I miss the BENEFITS!

 

Last week when I posted, "Hello, my name was Nancy", there was this amazing scripture that was posted on the bottom that read "forget not all my benefits".  The more and more I went back and reread that post to make sure it was communicating precisely what I was feeling, the more I realized that the good things we remind ourselves of in the hard times are often connected with the "benefits".  (Let's just see how many times I can say that word in one post... not really, I just am at a loss for a different word to substitute in it's place).  In times of lonliness we remind ourselves that God is our friend that sticks closer than a brother (benefit), in times of weakness we remind ourselves that the Joy of the Lord is our strength (benefit), in times of hurt and bitterness we remind ourselves that we forgive because He first forgave us (benefit), in times of loss we remind ourselves that He is close to the brokenhearted (benefit), in times of busy-ness we remind ourselves that in Him we find true rest (benefit), in times of failure we remind ourselves that He was persecuted in our place so that we would not get what we truly deserve (benefit).  I could go on and on. 

 

What are you going through today?  What burden have you been carrying far too long?  FORGET NOT THE BENEFITS!  The benefit that He sent His Son to carry that for you, the benefit that He made a way to not only give you an eternal life but also a quality of life here, now.  So pick up that Bible, flip through it's promise-filled pages, and find the benefit that He has given you.  The one promise that will not only carry you but comfort you.  The one you can stand on, put your faith in, and speak out!  They are there girls (and boys).  They are there.  Whatever you are facing, whatever feeling that has overtaken your heart, search for the promise.  They were given to us for our benefit.

 

 

Romans 6:22

²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,

the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.