Do You Know Your Father's Business Plans ? - Christian Entrepreneur Lectures

How do you apportion the hours of your day? For many of us it is somehow like this:

work (8 hours),
travel (2hours),
sleep (8hours),
television/entertainment (3hours),
balance to share between other matters - including God (2hours) .
God gets our leftover time, but we demand prime blessings from Him. In fact most of us only remember God when things appear not to be going very well at all. "Come let us reason together says the Lord" -Isaiah 1:18

Malachi means "my messenger", and the book was written by someone who described himself as such, but under divine guidance. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament in the Bible. All through the book we can see what obviously is the desperate call of a loving God, a caring Father to His children. It is a call that is as urgent as the exhortations through Isaiah. It is a call to fellowship, a call to sanity and a call to salvation. It is the kind of call which many of us hear everyday especially in our moments of gloom, but which our situation desires us to shut our ears to because it just pleases the devil that we complain and moan some more - and put all the blame on God.

We indeed hurt God by this attitude. Picture the feelings of agony of a loving Father towards a child who has been moved to spurn His love through ignorance. "You speak harshly against me", God is asking you to realise, if your mind has fallen to the error of blaming your troubles on Him. How? In your comfort zone of self-righteousness, haven't you very conveniently forgotten that you are alive; and that you are hale and hearty? And by what right has this come to you? What have you done that has made you to be selected for a longer life than the thousands who died even just yesterday, or who ended up in hospital with terminal diseases through no fault of theirs? Why has God loved you differently? (Malachi 1:23).

"You speak harshly against me", God is asking you to realise, if your mind has fallen to the error of blaming your troubles on Him. How? What have you recently given to Him that you have considered very valuable? Your remnant time? Your remnant money? Your remnant love? And yet many of us call Him "Father". (Malachi 1:6). But when we want to show our love to our biological father who has been good to us, don't we get him the best of whatever he demands? Why? Because we realise that without his love and guidance we would not be in our present advantaged position. Do we give the same love to our heavenly Father?

"You speak harshly against me", God is asking you to realise, if your mind has fallen to the error of blaming your troubles on Him. How? Have you not been thinking quite aloud, about how it is all around that evil people prosper, and not only that; they rule the world. You know folks; bandits don't need prayers to survive. They only need their guns or whatever weapon that they can lay their hands on. And you know, they get away with it all. Hey guys, is this Christianity stuff not for dummies ? God agrees with you on this: on the surface evil appears to prosper and reign supreme. But remember that He has also said : "Vengeance is mine". And he admonishes you to remember that day which He has set apart for judgement, (Malachi 4 1-3) And what are His promises concerning you, the obedient one, on this great day of vengeance? They are beautiful:

Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you will go forth and grow up as calves in the stall. And you will tread down upon the wicked, because they will have become ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this (judgement), says the Lord of Hosts.

"You speak harshly against me", God is asking you to realise, if your mind has fallen to the error of blaming your troubles on Him. You know, if you are like me you have probably been thinking to yourself how so very far away this day of judgement is, and how you'd rather have some extra comfort, I mean right now. Like you'd rather have some financial blessing today, next week, next month. Now that is quite perfectly okay as far as God is concerned. But He has a task that he has set for you, and it is a precondition for blessings that lasts: Pay your tithes regularly He says, and I will not only remove the activities of the devourer from your finances; I will also fill your house with so much blessing on a continuous basis, and all that you put your hands to doing will succeed(Malachi 3 :10-12).

A few people might not know what a tithe is. It is one tenth of your income (or monetary increase), and which you have in appreciation of God's blessing and in obedience to His instructions deducted and given to your church for its administration. And for many who know, but have chosen this particular moment to try and convince themselves that these are ancient directions, which have no relevance in the world of today, the messenger reminds that the laws of God are eternal and so are the blessings attached to observing them (Malachi 4:4). Prove me, God is saying; play your part and then prove me right or wrong. You see, we are talking concrete blessings here. But there is always a flip side to God's covenant promises of a blessing - and this can be equally as terrible (Malachi 2:2). Sometimes, it is be better not to believe in God than to believe half way.

Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts; and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 1:3). What sort of quality service does God demand of you in order to remain in His sight all the time? Believe me, they are not impossible tasks:

Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, He says (Hosea 2:12)
Learn to do well; seek judgement; relieve the oppressed;judge the fatherless; plead for the widow ; He says (Isaiah 1:17)
Pay your tithes faithfully, He advises (Malachi 3:10)
Stop moaning, stop complaining, obey God's instructions, form a habit of constant and intimate conversation with your Father, reason with Him on all matters, and never let the song of thanksgiving depart from your mouth.

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