What's In It For Me?

Common question many of us ask in almost everything we do in life.....What's in it for me? 

It seems on the surface that this is not an unfair question.  After all, what motivates us?  I suggest it is because we will receive some benefit.  You will not intentionally do something that will make everyone mad at you or cause yourself pain.  We often are motivated to do something because of the rewards or feedback. 

How do we approach God?  Do we approach Him as a genie, requesting our wishes to be granted, or as an IRS agent, ready to audit us in judgement?  Do we ask permission or guidance, or merely forgiveness or approval of our actions. 

Tough questions for me to deal with.  I want to be prosperous and successful, but what really is a measure for those?  I want to be comfortable and  have an easy life....but that really isn't what Christ has called us to. 

I was reading in Jonah this morning.  Jonah was a prophet of God whom God sent to preach a message of repentance to the archenemy of Israel, Nineveh.  This was the capital of Assyria, in modern day Iraq. (There is truly nothing new under the sun eh?).  Nineveh was a ruthless and sinful place that caused much suffering to the Israelites.  God, wanting to show His love and mercy, ordered Jonah to Nineveh to preach a message of repentance to save the Ninevites from destruction.  This might be equated to God sending you to present day Iran to preach forgiveness.  Would you go?  Well, neither did Jonah.  He fled the other direction.  (It is a good and easy book to read....so I will not consume you with the details).  The point of the book is that God can give forgiveness and mercy to whomever he chooses.  Jonah, wanted revenge, he wanted his idea of justice against the enemy to be carried out.  Upon his preaching this message reluctantly, he wanted to know what was in it for him. 

The last line of the book of Jonah is piercing even for us today.  Jonah 4:11 states, "And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Do we think that way towards our enemies...or do we want OUR justice and righteousness....What is in it for us?