Why Is It More Difficult To Serve The Lord Jesus Than Pleasure?

This question often perplexes the believer in Jesus Christ who has been faithful to the Lord for a period of time. As the faithful believer serves Christ, that believer begins to notice other people around them who are living for self--and from all appearances appear to be living a nice quiet life.  Maybe this believer notices that the worldly individuals are quite wealthy, or maybe very healthy.  Maybe the believer notices that the worldly ones have positions of power and are able to do whatever they please.  Meanwhile, the believer looks at himself and notices that the bills can't be paid this month, or that his family is too sick to go to church, or that some real needs are not being met.  Maybe the believer sees that he is actually trapped by life's circumstances and although wishes to do something about it, he can't because he is not powerful enough to make changes.
What is the believer to do?

What I just shared is an often experience that many Christians have as they try to serve God.  Fortunately for the Christian, there was someone else in Scripture who also had this common experience.  This person wrote a Psalm, Psalm 73:

 A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.  2  But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.  3  For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  4  For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.  5  They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.  6  Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.  7  Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.  8  They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.  9  They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.  10  Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.  11  And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?"  12  Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.  13  All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.  14  For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.  15  If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children.  16  But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,  17  until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.  18  Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.  19  How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!  20  Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.  21  When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,  22  I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.  23  Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.  24  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.  25  Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  26  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  27  For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.  28  But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. Psalms 73:1-28

The Psalmist was struggling with the prosperity of the wicked until he went into the sanctuary of the Lord (Psalm 73:17).  It was once he was there is really saw things correctly--he saw their end.  He states that the wicked are in slippery places--with ruin just a step away! (Psalm 73:18-19).

The Psalmist teaches us an important lesson as we struggle in our age with the wicked seemingly doing well while God's people are struggling to survive.  The wicked are just a moment away from a godless eternity while the believer instead always has the Lord as his refuge and his Savior (Psalm 73:24-28).  If you as a
Christian always remember that the end of the wicked is coming soon, your life's struggles will seem more like a temporary bump on the path to your heavenly home.

So how are you doing today in light of Psalm 73? Are you remembering the end of the wicked and drawing your confidence in the strength of the Lord, or have you been away from worshiping Christ and are still envious of the wicked?  How you view the worldly demonstrates whether your feet are stumbling (Psalm 73:2-3), or walking surely in Christ (Psalm 73:28).

Pastor Steve
Psalm 119:89