"Profit and Loss"

"Profit and Loss"  

      "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (I Timothy 4:8).

     

     The profit mentioned by the Apostle Paul regarding both the here and the hereafter concerns primarily the heart.  This is especially true in our present lifetime, wherein our Heavenly Father often allows and orchestrates losses rather than gains regarding earthly matters.  While not unconcerned about outward things, "the Lord looketh on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).  His redeeming grace in the Lord Jesus Christ presently emphasizes who and what we are in Him, that is, the changing of our character and nature into His blessed likeness.  "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).  This emphasis requires ongoing challenge, and also the redefinition of profit and loss.

   "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:39).

    When we find our natural life and its benefits, focusing on earthly gains, we inevitably lose whatever we may seem to gather.  The treasures often buried with rulers of antiquity are always found with decayed bodies in excavated graves.   As the saying goes, they didn't take it with them.  Conversely, unseen riches gathered by believers through loss abide forevermore to the Lord's glory, and the believer's eternal legacy.  "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matthew 6:20).  In this context, finding means losing, and losing means finding.  It doesn't feel that way, of course, and reaping spiritual profits comes at the expense of earthly losses in some form.  Thus, we must make the choice to follow God's definition whereby we keep that which we give away.  His thoughts and ways are not the same as our own, but we must embrace them in order to experience His ongoing metamorphosis of our hearts into the spiritual and moral likeness of the Lord Jesus (Isaiah 55:9).  This is true profit, whereby we recognize that earthly loss makes possible the transformation and the fulfillment of who we most deeply are…

"But godliness with contentment is great gain."

(I Timothy 6:6)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." 

(Psalm 27:8