How would you want to be remembered by a King?

If God was listening in on a conversation you were having with a group of people about the things going on in this world, what would He overhear you say? Would you want your words recorded in God's book? Would you be in favor of your King's remembrance? 

It seems in this passage we have 2 groups of people that Malachi is referring to. The first group, a faithless group, is gathered and talking about how serving God does not benefit them, and their efforts are in vain. God describes their words in Malachi chapter 3 as hard and rude. Some translations describe them as arrogant and harsh. They tell God evildoers are exalted and prosper and even seem to escape God and go unpunished. If that is so, then what is the point?

At times I have felt like this group, weary of the violence and suffering around me. Hurt, angry and lost in my own hardships. Pitted in pain and comparison. Arrogantly judging and coveting what others have. Often asking God “What about me, am I not good enough? I am doing all the things, why do bad things still happen?”

The second group, the faithful, were talking with each other and in their discussion, filled with awe and reverence for the Lord. God listened in and saw the respect and reverence of those who had honored His name. The Lord recorded in a book of remembrance the names of everyone who had faith. God, in this passage, refers to himself as “God-of-the-Angel-Armies” and declares that the faithful “are His, all his and they’ll get special treatment when I go into action. I will treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them and once more, you’ll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”  

When I think of this, I think of the many times I have sat with believers and heard amazing testimonies of God’s greatness: How lives are completely turned around, and the conversation is not about earthly possessions but of love for God and all He created, and the deep repentance that leads to salvation, and eyes fixed on Jesus.

I am grateful for God’s reminder in this passage that living a life dedicated to God’s will is not fought in vain. For it is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. The rain falls on the just and unjust, and we know God to be faithful and just and in this He has provided salvation through His son Christ Jesus. Have faith, my family, in knowing that a smile, a kind loving word, a handshake or a hug carried out with the love our savior Christ Jesus has modeled for us is an immeasurable amount of wealth! The richness of God’s love and His previsions is eternal. My prayer is that when life starts to shake us and we find ourselves in a crowded room of people, that we remember God’s ultimate sacrifice for us in Christ and we encourage each other to live devoted to God's will. 

Nikki Fiedler