Annual Enrollment

October 19, 2023

Is it Benefits Enrollment Time?

It is that time for some at work, to sign up for next year's benefits; "Annual Enrollment". We weigh all the costs in our paychecks versus what we expect to benefit. Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and others; costs add up. Employers vary in what they contribute, some are better than others. It can be a stressful time, where we hope we made the right choices. Hope the plans we chose are what we need without overspending, or hope we didn't spend enough and have bigger medical costs the next year.

Christian Benefit Time

As Christians do we find ourselves in Annual Enrollment to how we follow Christ? Do we weigh the benefits versus the cost? Not necessarily intentionally, but just do the easiest thing that day? "No time to read scripture today, I have to go here". The cost of our time with God we deem higher than the benefit. We make all these choices every day. Maybe we have reached spiritual retirement. We feel we have done enough; we believed and our lives were changed and we are all set to get our benefit when we die (heaven). So now we just rest; no time to read scriptures. We are too tired to stay in His Word. No time to go to church; were too busy. We just feel done. When we make these choices we are not seeing the earthly benefits of spending time with God. He provided us this great benefit and wants to talk with us like Adam in the garden. We get distracted and stop talking with him. It is not until we go the paths of Psalm 107 that we hear God as he called out to Adam, "... Where art thou" (Genesis 3:9)? Then we cry out to the Lord after we have hidden ourselves. We drift away from God spiritually. God knows where we are, he has given us his spirit. We just stop listening at times in our life. Then our choices start adding up until we weigh the benefit of time with God in his word and feel it is worth more than the cost. We see the cost then. We want the benefits of walking with God.

Christian Walk Benefits

I am not referring to the cost of salvation here; that has been paid for through Christ. He paid the price for our benefits. The price hasn't gone up since its inception about 2000 years ago. What employer can match that? Full coverage, just believe and repent. If you had coverage for benefits at work like that, wouldn't you want to tell everyone about your employer? With a repentant heart, all you have to do is say you believe and turn away from the old "flesh" benefits you had. There would be many who would say there has to be some catch, are you really covered? Is there really no deductible? But God has given us his word, "...that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"(John 3:16). Everlasting benefits!

The point of this post is about do we see the earthly benefits of walking with Christ? We can be like the two disciples after Jesus resurrection who were walking with him "But their eyes were holden that they should not know him" (Luke 24:16). It may be we don't see the things God is doing for us, we are still saved, but we stop seeing his hand, his works. We stop seeing the blessings, we stop hearing his voice. We start reasoning are works have gained this. The two disciples believed in Jesus, but when he became dead to them they left Jerusalem. Didn't know what God's will was, didn't know Jesus was walking with them. Do we get that way? Feel we are walking alone?

Lord let us consider the cost thou hast paid, as our employer. Help me to not drift spiritually by not following thy direction, thy paths. Thy path is through Christ, no other way.