Do It For Jesus – Payday Is Coming After While!

Sometimes it’s good to have a Peter in the bunch to boldly say what you were thinking but you dare not voice it. In Mark 10:28 Peter expresses to Jesus: “…Lo, (or look at all we’ve sacrificed) we have left all, and have followed thee.” Sometimes, in your efforts to do good for an extended period of time or for a great cause, you can get tempted to be discouraged. Thoughts can enter your mind to doubt your calling and purpose. But Jesus reassured Peter as well as us: “You’re on the right track, and in the end it will prove that you have done well when you do it for Jesus as He will abundantly recompense your labor for Him.

Mark 10:29-30 says: “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution; and in the world to come eternal life.” Our dissatisfaction is not with the receiving of the hundredfold return, but the fact that it comes with persecution; especially when the persecution gets personal. But, we must learn to do it for Jesus because payday is coming after while! Who doesn’t love payday! People may not enjoy the labor to get to payday but they love the end results of their labor.

I spoke with a lady some time ago concerning her employment at Oldsmobile factory. She said the first week was so strenuous and laborious until she didn’t think she could make it through the week. But, she pushed herself on and said once she received her paycheck after 2 weeks she would quit. But, after she received her first paycheck she was so amazed at how much she earned, she decided to work one more pay period and then quit. She received another paycheck and despite her aching body, she said I’m going to work long enough to pay some of my bills down and then I’ll quit. Weeks went into months, then years, then decades. She bought several new cars, purchased a brand new home, sent her children to college, traveled, until she finally retired from Oldsmobile. But, to receive the blessings of her labor she had to endure the persecution.

As we labor to please Jesus in this life, we must do it for Jesus because payday is coming after while. It is one thing to be tested and tried to overcome sin (i.e. lust, jealousy, pride, hatred, disobedience, etc) that is unlawful, but it takes a higher level of love and commitment to forsake family and personal wellbeing for Christ sake as stated in Matthew 10:29-30. Moses, the great emancipator made a decision to labor for God as stated in Hebrews 11:25: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” As it has been said: “It is not the suffering, but the cause that makes the martyr.”

Yes, we are in a fight, but we’re in it to win it! Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” Lastly, Jesus said to us all in Mark 8:35: “For whosoever will save his life (holding on to selfish ambitions) shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” So, I encourage you to be “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” And, remember to always: “Do It For Jesus -Payday Is Coming After While!”