There’s a story about a young mother who said to her son, ”Be a good boy now and go make your bed and pick up your toys for mommie.” To this the young lad replied, ”What will you give me if I do?” Somewhat exasperated because her son always wanted to be paid for everything he was asked to do, she replied, ”Why don’t you be like your father, he’s good for nothing.”

It is a sad fact that this little boy’s attitude carries over into many adult’s lives. Most adults are not quite so brazen as to ask, ”What will you give me?” but they seem to find it convenient to be too busy to say ”yes” unless we somehow make it worth their while.

The little boy should make his bed and pick up his toys because these are part of his household duties as a member of the family, not because he is being paid to do so. We also should do many things because we are members of God’s royal family.

Many years ago we had a brother in our ecclesia who only attended the Sunday evening Bible Lecture when he gave the lecture. Apparently speaking was his payoff for being there. It is so difficult to get the cooperation of some without somehow making it worth their while.

It would be an interesting experiment, although terribly expensive, to see what would happen if we were to pass out one hundred dollar bills at the door to each member of the ecclesia who attended the Sunday evening Bible Lecture. We are sure that suddenly many who had been unable to attend would somehow find it now possible to be there. Why? Because we made it worth their while. For some it might take five hundred, or even a thousand dollar bill but we can be sure that for some price, those who tell us that they cannot come would suddenly find a way.

Now we need to examine ourselves to see why we do what we do. Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver and this is not limited to our giving of our money but of our time and our efforts. Do we serve the Lord with gladness? Can we be counted on to support the classes, the lectures, the activities of the Lord in our area? What do we deem more important than the Lord’s work? What keeps us away? Whatever ”that” is, it could be our idol. Yes, idolatry is not dead, it has simply changed form.

The world around us is bowing down before their idol, the TV set, for hour after hour. They have no time for God because they spend it glued to the idiot box. If we asked them to come to our Bible lecture with us they would say ”no” because that is the time for their favorite program comes on the TV. Again, for some price, we could entice them away from their first love to come to the lecture with us.

We need to have our priorities straight. We should do everything we can do to serve our Lord for he knows where we are and what we are doing at all times. He knows why we do not attend this or help out there, because we have put some worldly idol ahead of him.

Actually our Lord is making it worth our while to put Him first in our lives but His reward is not handed out at the door of the ecclesia but rather it is laid up for us which ”the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give us at that day: and not to us only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

Are we seeking first the kingdom of God? There is no use seeking it second or third. If our number one goal in life is not the kingdom, then it is nothing.

In Isaiah’s day the Lord asked the question, ”Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then Isaiah said, Here am I; send me.” The Lord then said to Isaiah, ”Go.” If we respond as Isaiah did. then Jesus when he comes will say to us, ”Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you!”