"WHAT BENEFITS DO YOU OFFER?" GOD LIKES THE QUESTION, I'M CONVINCED!

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A word through Steve Shultz, THE ELIJAH LIST Steve's email: steve@elijahlist.com

I've hired a lot of people through the years. It never fails. Before the interview is over, "the" question is asked...

"What is your benefits package?" he or she ALWAYS wants to know.

It wouldn't be much of an interview without that question being asked. And it wouldn't be much of a job if there were NO benefit package TO offer. There were times in earlier days when the only benefit package I could offer was just that we were "nice folks" and it was a "great place to work" but we needed to have something to offer.

Benefits are there to first entice prospective employees--and then encourage them to stay . . . Especially when things get tough. Things get tough when we work for the Lord too. But then, you knew that, right?

The LORD is our ultimate employer and yet also our ultimate friend! He knows something about our frame and our thinking processes. He doesn't consider it selfish when we want to know," What's the benefit package being offered here?"

Did you know it's not selfish to ask that? Some would want you to THINK it's selfish to ask. Jesus talked a lot about rewards. About blessings. About what awaits us. He wants us to ask, to know, and to be encouraged by the benefits He is offering.

Does that surprise you?

David, the man "after God's Own heart" knew how to ask the right questions. And when he was feeling down (you don't have to read many of the Psalms to know that David felt "down" a LOT!!) -- David knew how to talk to himself--to get himself out of an emotional slump.

In the Bible, when David talked to himself, he called himself-- "O my soul."

Remember this one?

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"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him. (Ps 42:5)

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David at times needed to remind himself...to encourage himself...to TALK TO HIMSELF about where he stood with God.

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"My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved." (Ps 62:5-6)

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I suppose there were times -- when life was the most rough that David needed to recite to himself, to say, "Oh my soul--remember THIS!" During worship the other day, the Lord began to show this all to me. When David must have needed to do it, he began to recount to himself GOD'S BENEFIT PACKAGE FOR HIS CHILDREN.

Want to eavesdrop of David's conversation with himself about God's benefit package? Want to see David check his attitude? Perhaps it had been a hard day "at the office." Maybe everyone in his life had turned their back on him at that very moment.

Was he feeling old and spent?

He might have been in the worst physical pain of his life because of a sickness . . . .

We can only speculate-- but David deemed it necessary to remind himself of GOD'S BENEFIT PACKAGE here.

He even wrote it down while he listened to the Holy Spirit . . .

Now Listen to David...

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Praise the LORD, O my soul; [he's reminding himself what he must do] all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS-- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Ps 103:1-5)

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Is this a good day to talk to your soul? A good day to review HIS benefit package?

Maybe you should write it down too!

-- Steve Shultz, THE ELIJAH LIST steve@elijahlist.com