What If?
2 Chronicles 26:5
"And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper."
The verse above says that King Uzziah did right as long as "God made him to prosper." Yes, the prerequisite to this was that he sought the LORD. But, what if God didn't make him to prosper? The answer is later found in that he turned away from the LORD. Uzziah was like the average person in that as long as he felt God was good to Him he served the LORD.
There is a problem with this mentality because there are going to be times when you serve the LORD that you are not going to prosper. We live in times when the prosperity preachers make it sound as if everything will be great if you serve the LORD. Certainly God blesses us when we serve Him, but God never tells us how long it will be before the blessing will come.
When you look at the Scriptures, you will find there were many men who didn't immediately see God's blessing. Abraham didn't see God's blessings immediately, but he kept doing right until his old age. Noah did right for one hundred and twenty years before he saw God's blessings. Ezekiel preached his whole life and never saw the blessing of results in his ministry. The three Hebrew children had to go through the fiery furnace before they saw the blessings of God. Many of the Old Testament prophets went years before they saw God's blessings, but they still served the LORD in spite of the lack of prosperity.
A shallow Christianity will only serve the LORD as long as God prospers. What if God didn't prosper you, would you still serve Him? Christian, you should serve the LORD because it is right and not because you are blessed. If the only reason you serve the LORD is because He is blessing you, then what are you going to do when tough times come? I can tell you what you will do, you will do exactly what Uzziah did and that was he quit serving the LORD. I have watched many Christians over the years who seemed like good Christian people, but when adversity came they stopped serving the LORD. The adversity simply revealed how shallow their Christianity really was.
There needs to come a point in your life when you decide you are going to serve the LORD no matter what. In good times and in bad times you must decide to serve the LORD. Yes, it will take character to continue to do right in adverse times, but you should serve the LORD because it is the right thing to do. You will only be successful at continuing to serve the LORD in adverse times if you stop basing your service off the blessings and place your basis of service on right and wrong. If you decide you are going to serve the LORD because it is right, whether or not you are prosperous is not going to stop you from serving the LORD.
I challenge you today to make a choice whether you are going to serve the LORD. Do you find yourself backing off from your service to the LORD when times are not as good? Then you need to make some changes! Look at God's way of life and realize it is the best way because it is the right way. If you will stay focused on that, then you have a better chance of serving the LORD when the "What if" in life comes your way.