No matter what you have gone through, if you stick close to God, He will reward you. The Word says in Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]."
Many people seem to believe that God is a punisher. But they obviously
do not have an intimate knowledge of God. By His very nature of love (see 1
John 4:8), God is a rewarder.
God wants
us to expect a reward; He wants us to believe for and look forward to His
reward. His Word says that those who come to Him must believe that He is and
that He is a rewarder. We should not focus on what we have been through; we
should set our thoughts on what God is going to do for us, as we remain
faithful to Him. Our testimony should be filled with praise for Him as we proclaim,
"I have a reward coming!"
The expectation of a reward fills us with hope. It helps us get through
difficulties. The Bible says that although Jesus despised the cross, He endured
it for the joy of the prize that was on the other side of it. Consequently, we
are to continue "looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who
is the
Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our
belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]"
(Hebrews 12:2).Nobody would want to go to work if they did not think they were
going to get a paycheck. When there is a prize for endurance, there is
motivation in us that gives us the stamina to keep going. We say, "It's
okay; I can go through this, because I know I'm going to get something out of
it."
It is important to realize that God is a loving Father and that He is
going to take care of us. We are faithful to Him because of His goodness to us.
He brings a reward and special blessings into our lives, not because He owes us
anything but because it is His very nature to demonstrate love to those who
diligently seek Him.
If you were not diligently seeking after more of God, you would have put
this message aside many pages ago. But here you are, still reading, hoping to
learn something about God that you did not know before. That tells me that you
are in line for a reward from Him, as one who is faithfully seeking the Lord.
God Is Watching You
God is
watching you, and He sees everything you do. The psalmist said of Him,
"You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar
off" (Psalm 139:2). The Bible says, "For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth to
show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward
Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). God is eagerly seeking opportunities to reward
you for your faith in Him.
Jesus
said, "Behold, I am coming soon, and I shall bring My wage sand rewards
with Me, to repay and render to each one just what his own actions and his own
work merit" (Revelation 22:12). That means that people will receive pay
for the actions they commit while on this earth. Now, that can be exciting in
one way, and frightening in another way. We need to realize that God is
watching us, and that no one is really getting by with anything. God neither
sleeps nor slumbers (see Psalm 121:4). He knows everything that goes on behind
closed doors. So we need to live as if we really believe that God is watching
our every move. When we sit and have a conversation, we need to remember that
God is the unseen Guest Who is listening to everything that we have to say.
Jesus warned His followers:
take care not to do your good deeds publicly or before men, in order to
be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward [reserved for and awaiting
you] with and from your Father Who is in heaven. Thus, whenever you give to the
poor, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and
in the streets like to do, that they may be recognized and honored and praised
by men. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full
If we do things to get attention from people, then the public attention
we receive from others is our reward, and there will be no further reward from
God. Do not trade God's reward for people's reward. Wait for what God can give
you, because it is going to be much better than the reward that people can give
you.
Jesus went on to say, "But when you give to charity, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your deeds of
charity may be in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you
openly"(Matthew 6:3-4).In other words, do good works with pure motives,
but do not boast about them. What you are able to do secretly, God will reward
you for openly. Jesus even told us to pray privately, saying, "But when
you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your
Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you
in the open"(Matthew 6:6).
You may
feel that you have a thankless job. Maybe you have worked in the church nursery
for ten years, and the only feedback you ever get is from a few parents who
complain about the way you take care of their kids. Or maybe you have been ushering
at the church for five years, and nobody has ever said thank you for your
faithfulness. Or maybe you are an intercessor, and nobody even knows that you
are
Do not become discouraged in doing good, for God sees everything you are
doing for others on His behalf. Not one good work that you do with the right
motive has gone unnoticed by Him. God sees every person you help, every person
you are kind to; He knows every time you show somebody a little bit of mercy,
every time you show someone forgiveness; and He will reward you for it. If you
are looking forward to God's reward, you will continue to do things with the
right motive.
What to Do When Trouble Comes
Sooner or later we all have some trouble in life. We all have some
trials and some tribulations. Everybody goes through times of testing. And not
every storm shows up in the forecast.
Some days
we can wake up and think everything is going to be great. Before that day is
over, we may be tested by all kinds of trouble that we were not expecting.
Trouble is part of life, so we simply have to be ready for it. We need to have
a planned response to trouble, because it is more difficult to get strong after
trouble comes. It is better to be prepared by staying strong.
The first thing you need to do when trouble comes is pray,God, help me
stay emotionally stable. Do not let
your emotions overwhelm you. The next thing you need to do is trust God.
The instant that fear rises up, pray.
Stay emotionally stable, trust God, and pray. Then while you are waiting
for God to answer, simply keep doing good. Keep your commitments. Do not stop
serving the Lord just because you have a problem. The greatest time in the
world to keep your commitments to God is in the midst of difficulty and
adversity. When the devil sees that trials and tribulations won't stop you, he
will stop troubling you for a while.
"And let us not lose heart and grow weary and
faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed
season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint"
(Galatians 6:9).
So there
are four things to do when trouble and trials come to you: Stay emotionally
stable; trust God; pray immediately to avoid getting into fear; and keep doing
good. The fifth thing to do is expect a reward.
We seldom even do one of these things when trouble comes, but that may
be from not having a plan. I believe we need to stay strong by practicing these
steps even when we are not in trouble.
To be prepared for the next time you find yourself in a difficult
situation, practice saying, "I am going to be
faithful to God, and God is going to give me double for my trouble.
Satan, you thought you were going to hurt me, but I am going to get a double
blessing, because I am one who diligently seeks the Lord."
God's Will for You
This is the will of God concerning you: Double blessings are in store
for you, because you believe that "He is the rewarder of those who
earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]" (Hebrews 11:6).
As you
can see, there is a condition-and that is to believe. Where there is a
privilege, there is also a responsibility. If you do your part, God will never
fail to do His part.
You will have trouble, but what matters is how you
respond to it. Do not get discouraged, disappointed, depressed, negative, or
hopeless when trials come.
Instead,
just shake them off and keep on going. There is an upside to trouble. When you
have trouble, you experience the comfort of God.
Jesus said, "Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced
by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation
of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!"
(Matthew 5:4).
If we really understand how awesome the comfort of God is, it is almost
worth it to have a problem just to
experience His marvelous comfort. The Bible says, "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and
mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and
encouragement), Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble
(calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and
encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort
(consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled
and encouraged) by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).God comforts us so we can
comfort others.
Enjoy God's Favor
Something
else we need to confess every day of our life is, "I have favor with God,
and God gives me favor with man. I walk in the favor of God." When you
have God's favor, people like you and want to do things for you, and they don't
even know why. There is no natural reason, but they are drawn to you and want
to be good to you; they just want to be a blessing to you.
God's favor is wonderful. People who have been abused need to learn to
shake off their offenses and just enjoy this free gift of grace from God. Those
who humble themselves enjoy more and more favor in their lives.
Peter was someone who was easily
offended but who
God's Blessings Are Bigger Than You Can Imagine
If I had
not learned to cast my cares on the Lord, and let Him strengthen and settle me,
I would not be enjoying the double blessings through which we now minister.
When God called us to go on television, the Spirit of God visited Dave one
morning as he was combing his hair. He said to Dave, "I have prepared you
and Joyce all this time to go on television."
We didn't know that we were in a time of preparation during all those
years when we were faithful to travel anywhere to hold meetings for fifty to a
hundred people; to sleep in McDonald's parking lots when we didn't have the
money to stay in hotels, because we were willing to preach for little to
nothing; to withstand judgment and criticism, and endure rejection from our
home church. It was all preparation for a greater work. We knew to stay faithful,
but we never dreamed God's reward would be this big. We now enjoy preaching the
Word to audiences of several thousand people at a time who are hungry to know
God more intimately. Our Life In The Word telecast is aired daily over 400
television stations, with a potential audience of 2.5 billion people in nearly
two-thirds of the world. Since 1988, we have released more than fifty books,
thirty-six of which have been translated into forty-five languages, and have
distributed over 3 million copies. I boast
only of the Lord; God had a
reward in mind for us, and His blessings upon us continue to expand each year.
I didn't know this is what God had in mind when He was telling me,
"Just hang on, Joyce, I am going to give you double for your trouble. What
the devil meant for evil against you, I am turning for good so that you will be
in a position to help many people."
God has
the same message for everybody We must endure times of preparation, but we can
be "assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things
work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love
God and are called according to [His] design and purpose" (Romans 8:28).
So the next time you face trouble, shake it off. If you are loving God
and walking in His will for your life to the best of your ability, then you can
be assured that everything is going to work out for your good. We serve a good
God Who takes bad things and works them out for good.
God's Great Exchange
God is in the exchange business; He takes all the
junk that we do not want and exchanges it for all the good that He has in store
for us.
For example, when I married Dave,
I did not have
any money. I did not have a car
but Dave had a car. When we got married, suddenly I had a car and money,
because when Dave and I were married, everything he had suddenly became mine
too.
It is the same way when we commit to Jesus. He is the Bridegroom, and we
are His bride. We do not become heirs to His promise by simply dating Him, but
by fully committing ourselves to Him as in a marriage. A lot of people want to
just "date" Jesus, hoping they will still get the double blessings.
The power that is in the name of Jesus is enjoyed only by those who
belong to Him. I did not get Dave's name until I married him. When you come to
the Lord and commit everything in your life to Him, complete with its pain and
injustices, God promises to take everything that is wrong in it and exchange it
for what is right.
Jesus said:
If you
[really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands" (John 14:15). Those
who love Him and obey Him will receive His great exchange described in Isaiah
61:7: "Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense;
instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited];
everlasting joy shall be theirs."
No comments:
Post a Comment