Malachi 3:14-16 (ESV)

[14] You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? [15] And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”

[16] Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

“You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit…?” (Mal 3:14). Really!? That is why we serve God? Because he will make life easy for us? There are two truths here that we need to remember. First, we do not serve God for what we can get out of him. We serve him because he is God. Back in the 1970s it was common to hear someone saying, “God is the greatest high.” The problem with that is that it uses God for selfish means. God just becomes a means to another form of high. When the high wears off, we’ll look for another source to make us feel good. Yet too often that is exactly what we are doing with God. If things don’t turn out the way we think they should, if pain or rejection becomes a part of our life experience, if we don’t feel God close to us, then we assume he has abandoned us or is not worth following. We look for another way to find happiness.

We don’t serve God because of what he can do for us. We serve him because he is God. We serve him because he brought us into existence. We serve him because we belong to him. We serve him because he formed us, called us, redeemed us, and loves us beyond anything we can imagine, even when we can’t feel it. We serve God because he is God.

But there is a second truth. For believers in Christ, God will not forget us. “A book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name” (Mal 3:16). Even though the people to whom this prophecy is being written had robbed God, disgraced God, doubted God, and questioned whether it might be better to reject God, still God promised to remember them. His love is not grounded in our obedience, but in his very nature. God is love. His grace is not rooted in who we are, but in what he did by sending his Son. That is the beauty of Christmas and Easter. 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

We have become a people that are so controlled by the concept of instant gratification that the idea of waiting for reward has become almost repugnant. Yet things are worth waiting for. Despite the agony of anticipation, Christmas is worth waiting for to open presents. That is what makes it special. If Christmas were every day it would simply become routine. Similarly, without the pain, we would take God’s grace for granted and we would not grow in faith. He has not forgotten us. There will come a day when all will be set right. In the meantime, serve him not for what he has to offer now, but because he is God, and because he has not forgotten us.