{"id":7831,"date":"2021-10-01T06:39:36","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T11:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7831"},"modified":"2021-08-25T19:01:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T00:01:58","slug":"devotional-on-malachi-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-malachi-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Malachi"},"content":{"rendered":"

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2014 – Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nOn the brink and not realizing it
\nMalachi 3: It doesn\u2019t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it?
\nThe message of Malachi is for people who are living in the broad middle, somewhere between the best and the worst days of life. They\u2019re comfortable and secure, just going about the business of living. However, there\u2019s hidden danger in that. When I\u2019m living in the middle I\u2019m tempted to take things for granted. Blessings that would have thrilled those who went before me are lost to me. God feels distant and that makes it easier for me to take spiritual shortcuts which make him feel even more distant. If I\u2019m not careful, one day I look around and God is nowhere to be found. I think to myself, \u201cDo I really need the hassle of religion? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth the effort I put into it. People who live as non-religious individualists seem to get along okay. Maybe that\u2019s for me.\u201d That\u2019s where Malachi\u2019s congregation is. Without a sense of desperation for God they\u2019ve drifted away from him. Now, they\u2019re on the verge of stepping off the cliff into the canyon of unbelief. The Lord responds that he\u2019s well aware of what\u2019s going on and that the day’s coming when they\u2019ll be abruptly moved from the broad middle to the hard side of life. With all else ripped from their grasp, their faith will be all there is left to hold on to. There\u2019s unseen danger for those of us living in the broad middle of life.
\nTake Away: We have to pay attention to spiritual things or they slip from our grasp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the brink and not realizing it Malachi 3: It doesn\u2019t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? The message of Malachi is for people who are living in the broad middle, somewhere between the best and the worst days of life. They\u2019re comfortable and secure, just going about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516,6,7],"tags":[88,141,190,340,962],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15606,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions\/15606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}