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God is a Rewarder, who desires to bless you with life and good days. And it comes, as you follow his precepts, which go on to lead you towards experiencing His peace. He who would love life to see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil, to do what is good; let him seek peace and pursue it. [1 Peter 3:10,11]
Peace is not just a peace of mind, but wholeness in you, in every sphere of your life , in your body, in your emotions, in your work and in your relationships. It is having all that God wants you to have, in order to fulfill His will for your life. And pursuing it implies, getting the right perception of it, as you focus on Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
The connection between giving to God, and wholeness in your life, in the area of financial supply, is addressed in the book of Proverbs. [Proverbs 3:9,10] And, it is the attitude with which you give to God, which plays a very key role, for God knows your heart. Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to Him, must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. [Hebrews 11:6]
By faith Abel brought an offering that was pleasing in God’s sight. It is not about what you give, but, what you believe when you give unto God. And, it is beautifully displayed in Abraham’s life, for at the end of his life, he was blessed by God in all things, to experience wholeness in life. [Genesis 24:1] It did not happen overnight, but was a step by step journey, a walk with God, that saw his faith become progressively stronger, in order to give to God, receive from God and also give up something for God, and do it all with a right attitude.
Faith illustrated in giving, and giving up for God :
In his encounter with Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, Abraham displayed the truth concerning giving to God, as he gave a tithe of everything. For, it was in response to receiving the revelation truth that came to him, by faith. It was the truth of God being the Possessor of heaven and earth, who had defeated his enemies. [Genesis 14:18-20]
A little further on in the encounter, Abraham gave up on certain material wealth, because it was offered to him by the king of Sodom, who stood for the world system, which even now, lies under the sway of the evil one. [Genesis 14:22] And, by doing so, Abraham declared his faith and trust in the God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, who alone would make him rich. It shows the practical truth of life, that apart from God, one ought to hold all other things loosely. It was how Abraham was able to offer his nephew Lot, the option of choosing first, when they needed to separate. After all, it was he who was called by God to inherit all of Canaan, to be blessed that he may be a blessing. [Genesis 13:6–18] Abraham was blessed by God after it, who promised him all the land as far as his eye could see to him and his descendants forever.
God rewards you :
It was the revelation truth that came to Abraham from God, after his supernatural victory over the five kings, who had taken Lot captive. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield and your reward shall be very great’. [Genesis 15:1]
God addresses a fear in Abraham; and there is an element of surprise in this, for he had just experienced a huge victory, overcoming all odds. And, one would be led to think, that his emotional condition would be one of bold confidence, and definitely not fearful. But, as you go beyond the surface level, it will reveal a truth that could be equally applicable, in your life and mine.
Why was Abraham fearful ?
He had won a great victory, no doubt; but then again, Abraham knew that it was all by the favor of God upon him. He knew that he was not a professional warrior, who can face one battle after another, whenever the need arose. David was such a man; he knew that God had trained his hands for battle. For the battles which came regularly, from all directions, in many unique ways ! Abraham though, was not called to be such a man, and he had entered into battle in order to rescue his nephew Lot.
‘Maybe it was a random one , off victory that I experienced; what will I do if the enemies regroup to come against me once more ?’, could have been the thought running through his mind, to fill his mind with fear. God addressed the fear within him, at the outset, to remove it.He did it by speaking the promise of His presence with Him ! ‘Do not be afraid ; I am there, to shield and protect you’. How wonderful it must have been to Abraham to hear those comforting words ! Peace is not the absence of danger, but rather, it is the presence of God with you, and His Spirit in you.
And you will find, that whenever God says, ‘Do not fear’, He goes on to add, ‘I am with you’, or ‘I will be with you’. When the presence of the One who has given you the assurance, the promise, is with you, what more could a person need, for his fears to be assuaged ? ! It would be very much like what you would automatically, when your little child comes crying to you in the middle of the night, feeling fearful because of a bad dream, maybe. As you hold the little one close, assuring her of your presence, you will find that she drifts immediately back into peaceful slumber ! At that point, your child needed your presence, and not an analysis of the nature of the dream, or whatever it was that had disturbed her.
And God knows your need, even before the need arises. He knows your every thought, even before it comes in your mind. And, being the loving Father that He is, He knows when you need just the assurance of His presence, to see your fears washed away ! It was the assurance that the Lord gave to Joshua, as he stood on the brink of the land of promise as the leader, in the place of Moses ! Maybe it was with a sense of déjà vu that he stood, as the events of how it all fell apart, at that very same place, forty years earlier, began to resurface in him, and make him fearful, at the size of the task that awaited him. Through all that lay ahead of him, God assures him that His presence would be there; and therefore he need not fear. [Joshua 1:9]
It is how David is able to proclaim his courage saying, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear any evil, for Thou art with me’. [Psalm 23:4] But then again you can be tempted into the Gideon mentality, to wonder why bad things are happening to you, or have happened to you, when God was with you all the time. It is what you need to avoid, as you find your rest in the truth that the Lord knows it all, and know also, that it is all that you need to know. After all, even the very hairs on your head are all numbered ! It is how Lord Jesus explains, the extent of your heavenly Father’s knowledge and care of every minute detail of your life’s happenings. And, when you know that such a God’s presence is with you, it can remove needless worry and fear from within you, and also give you the strength to overcome your problem.
Fear – concerning letting go of certain things :
This may not have been Abraham’s fear, when he said ‘no’ to receiving from the king of Sodom, as he put his trust in the God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, to be made rich. But such a fear can easily come in you and I. For, you may end up wondering whether giving up, what was handed on a platter was a wise decision. And, whether you will get back what you have let go, may then become a constant niggling fear in you.
It is the picture of a hungry man, who has a little food in his hand, but is too scared to eat it, for he thinks he may not get any more food. And, by hoarding it, and not using it to satisfy his hunger, he may ultimately end up losing his life, owing to lack of sustenance. Taken literally it may seem a very drastic and improbable scenario, but a person can do such a thing in any sphere of life. It can happen especially in old age, when a fear concerning having enough to live on, looms large in a person’s mind. And then, having a tight fisted attitude towards God, unable to surrender and lift his hands unto Him in submission, only sees him suffering, instead of flourishing in old age, to declare that the Lord is good.
It needs faith therefore, to give up and refuse certain things, in order to stand for God and His ways. It was what Abraham did at that point of his journey with God. And, you and I can learn valuable lessons from it, to be built up in our walk of faith. For, as it happened in the life of Abraham, when you refuse to vouch for certain things, because they are not morally right in God’s sight, and give them up, you will see that what God rewards you with will be much greater !
Faith – is pleasing to God :
He is pleased by your faith, and He rewards your faith as you seek Him diligently. [Hebrews 11:6] For, God loves to be trusted ! And yet, for most people, it becomes a very difficult proposition, when one needs to make a choice between trusting God, and bowing down to the world system. But, when you choose to put your faith and trust in Him, to give unto Him, and give up on certain worldly benefits that come to you in ungodly ways, you will find that He rewards you, to exceedingly bless you in ways that you never even imagined.And,it is where having an expectation to receive from God needs to be there in you.
Faith and expectation :
Faith expects great things from God. Faith and expectation go together. ‘What I have given unto God, is something for which I may or may not be rewarded’, is not the right attitude. It does not spring forth from the God kind of faith. For, when you give to God in faith, you can also in faith expect a reward for it. It is how God’s economy of grace functions !
Therefore, when you draw near to Him in faith, to spend time in His presence, to worship and hear from Him, you can expect Him to speak to you. You can by faith, expect a harvest and He will reward you with it, that His Name may be glorified. ‘Do you believe that I can heal you ?’, was the query of the Savior, and when the answer was by faith, an expectant ‘yes’, the two blind men received the word of healing that rewarded their faith. [Mathew 9:28,29]
Even in the human level, on dialing a number, to hear from your spouse, or other loved ones’, you expect to hear a voice that brings joy and comfort in your soul, when the call goes through, and is picked up on the other end ! How much more certain you can be with God, and expect to hear His voice, as you call unto Him, who has promised in His word , ‘Call unto Me, and I will answer, to show you great and mighty things that you do not know’. [Jeremiah 33:3]
He will answer you uniquely, and very specifically, to reward you. ‘There is a broken heart in every pew’, is the title of a book that has touched many people with the love of God. And, even today, God desires to mend every broken heart, as you call unto Him in faith, expecting Him to answer you. He is a Rewarder ! And, hearing His voice, together with the presence of the Almighty God with you is in itself a reward. He Himself is your greatest reward; and you belong to Him !
How mindful of you He is – to reward you !
‘For whosoever gives you a even a cup of cold water to drink in My Name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, He will by no means lose His reward’. [Mark 9:41] They are the words of the Savior Himself; and how powerful they are ! And, the point to be noted and assimilated within you is a truth that is far bigger and greater. It is the revelation truth of His word that comes to you as a reward from the Lord, even as you draw near to Him in faith this day, with expectation.
Your reward shall be great :
The verse above declares how anyone who gives you even something that is extremely small, and unimportant in the grand scheme of things will be rewarded by God, all because you belong to Him. And, when you know that even a giver who may be a stranger to the kingdom of God, is then rewarded by Him, how much more would your reward be, when you yourself are the giver ? ! He knows you so minutely, and loves to be trusted by you. He is pleased when you go to Him in faith, with expectation. And, He rewards you, as you seek Him earnestly and sincerely.
God is not a debtor to any man ! Therefore, you cannot allow wrong thoughts to get planted in you. It happens as you begin to think that you have tithed a lot, and prayed for a long time without receiving any answer from God. For, the very fact that you are alive this day is all by the mercy and grace of God. And yes, challenges may still be there in your life, problems yet to be resolved; but you and I will never know about the hundreds of dangers that God has kept us from, without allowing them to come anywhere near you and I, for we belong to Him ! And, He is a Rewarder.
The nature of your reward :
The rich young man who came to Jesus, in order to be saved, left with sadness, for he was unable to part with his earthly riches, that had taken the place of God in his life, in order to gain the true riches of salvation. The rich young man could not, but the disciples had; for every one of them, had left their employment, which was their means of livelihood, in order to follow the Lord. They were not men who were aimlessly sitting under a shade discussing what was wrong with the world, when the Lord had called them to become fishers of men !
But initially, they would have certainly presumed that the Lord would be a political Messiah, who would one day in the near future, rise up to overthrow the Roman Empire that had made slaves of them, treating them harshly and unjustly. Soon though, it dawned on them, as the Lord began to call them His friends, to reveal to them the will of the Father that it was not going to be so. For, the Lord began to explicitly show to them, His path to the Cross, His death and resurrection. And then, questions may have come up in the minds of the disciples, regarding their immediate felt needs, for they had left all to follow Him. It is what Peter expresses in words ..
‘What shall we have ?’
‘See, we have left all and followed you; what shall we have ?’ And so Jesus answered them and said, ‘Assuredly I saw unto you, that in the re generation, when the Son of Man sits upon the throne of His glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel’. [Mathew 19:26,27] The Lord describes to the disciples the glorious reward that awaited them on the Day of His second coming. It was the reward of the ‘then and there’, which lay in the future. And, then the Lord goes on to describe their reward in the ‘here and now’, what applies to every child of God, who chooses to come to Him, to take up His yoke, and learn from Him – ‘And everyone who has left houses, or brothers or sisters or father or mother, or wife or children or lands, for My sake, shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life’. [Mathew 19:29]
And, leaving your wife for the sake of the gospel ought not to be misunderstood, and wrongly applied. For, it sets forth a realignment in your priorities, where Christ becomes supreme in your life, having pre-eminence over all others, and does not mean a literal walking away from your wife and family; rather it teaches that in the process of following God’s kingdom path, if ever the need arises where you need to relinquish your land or property for kingdom’s sake, you will receive a reward from God that is much greater.
The mansion that He is building for you in heaven is the reward that awaits you ‘then and there’, while even in the ‘here and now’, God will reward you with a house of your own, and all that is connected with it; for those who seek the Lord, shall indeed lack no good thing. And, He is not a God who forgets your service, your labor of love rendered unto Him and His saints. He is always faithful to reward you.
God is never unjust, to not reward you :
The writer to the Hebrews makes the truth abundantly clear, so that no doubt may arise in you to make your expectation wane . For God is not unjust to forget your work, and labor of love which you have shown toward His Name, in that you have ministered to His saints, and do minister. [Hebrews 6:10] People may sometimes forget the help that you render to them in their time of need; and truth be told, sometimes you and I are guilty of it too. It was what happened in the life of Joseph in the prison, when he rightly interpreted the cup bearer’s dream, who promptly forgot Joseph’s request, when he once again stood before the king ! [Genesis 40:23]
Nabal, whose very name meant ‘fool’, foolishly chose to forget the help that David and his men had given him, in protecting his livestock, to arrogantly ignore him later. And then, David’s rightful anger towards him, needed to be assuaged by the wise and beautiful Abigail, the wife of Nabal, who intervened to offer wise counsel, one that David commended and received. [1 Samuel 25:2-35]
God never forgets :
There may have been many cup bearers in your life ! And, maybe you and I have been cupbearers too ! But God never forgets, and He never forgets also to reward you. The responsibility that lies with you is to not become sluggish, or allow your faith and expectation to be watered down by the passage of time, that see prayers remain seemingly unanswered in your life. God never forgets, and He knows when the time is right for your reward to appear. It is what the book of Hebrews proceeds to declare – And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate who through faith and patience inherit the promises. [Hebrews 6:11,12]
God remembering Sarah, to bless her with the son of promise, was not about forgetting her at any point. It was about His loyal love and timely intervention. And, it is the same with you. The God who carried you in your mother’s womb, is still carrying you, and will carry you until the end of your earthly days. It is His word of promise that will never fail. Therefore, do not give up, or become apathetic or indifferent concerning what you believe in faith, concerning the future that God has promised to you and your children, your church, your city or your nation. Do not throw away your confidence, but have expectation and hope !
A great reward !
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. [Hebrews 10:35] Your faith or your confidence is connected to your reward. Therefore, God counsels you in His word to hold on to your faith with expectation. For, throwing away your confidence would be like throwing away your reward ! And, confidence comes through comprehension; a right understanding of who God is through His word, to be able to say like Paul, ‘I know in whom I have believed, and I am thoroughly convinced that He is able to guard what I have committed to Him until that Day. [2 Timothy 1:12]
It is the confidence that is not self confidence, but a confidence that is a faith in the Son of God. And Abraham, who is reckoned to be the father of faith, has shown the path to it in the midst of challenges. He was not weakened in his faith, as he considered his own body, for he was nearly a hundred years old] or the barrenness of Sarah’s womb, but grew strong in his faith. It was made possible for he was fully convinced that God was to accomplish the word that He had spoken to him. [Romans 4:19]
Faith made strong – by hearing God’s word :
Hearing God’s word was how it happened in Abraham; and how it is made possible in you and I today. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, continually. ‘Hearing’ implies something that is something which is ‘present continuous’. As you keep hearing and understanding the word of God, more and more, you will find your faith becoming strong, to be a confidence in you that will ultimately receive a reward. You need to eat regularly and rightly, in order to maintain and strengthen your physical body. And it is the same, when it is about strengthening your faith and confidence, without allowing it to get weakened. Hearing the word of God every day, regularly and continually with diligence is the path to a strong and confident faith.
Faith involves diligence – continually hearing from God :
The need for it can be seen by studying an incident that happened in the life of Jairus, in his encounter with the Lord. Jairus, was the head of a synagogue, and would have been well acquainted with the scriptures that pointed to the coming Messiah. His little daughter became very seriously ill to be at the point of death, and he came to the Lord, imploring Him to come and heal his daughter. [Mark 5:23-34]
The Lord went with him; but on the way, He was seemingly getting delayed, for He was ministering to the woman who had been healed miraculously on touching the hem of His robe, of a twelve year old problem. And even as He was speaking to her, the Lord heard also the word of the people who came to Jairus, saying his daughter was dead. And, He intervened at that point, when to Jairus, all seemed lost. The Lord spoke to revive his hope that he may not throw away his confidence.
‘Do not be afraid – only BELIEVE’ :
But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe’. [Mark 5:36] What a wonderful God you and I have, who is aware of every negative word or thought that comes to us as we navigate the challenges of life. He knows a thought of doubt and fear, even before it arises in you, and He addresses it, so that you may not throw away your confidence.
You may be even now at the point of giving up as you think, ‘What is the point in my sowing, in my praying; there seems to be no answer at all’. The devil may be fueling all these doubts in you. But, the Lord hears, and the Lord knows, and He is saying to you even now, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe’. Jairus became fearful, as he listened to the voices of others. It can happen with you too, but though they may be facts, you also have the Person of Jesus Christ, the Living Word who can change it all, as you hold on to your faith. Therefore, do not throw in the towel, as the idiom goes, regarding all His promises to you. For, God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
‘I know my Redeemer lives’ :
It was the confidence that saw Job through all his challenges, to say in the end, ‘I had heard of Him, but now my eyes have seen Him’. David declares his faith and confidence as, ‘I will not die but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. [Psalms 118:17] And, ‘I remain confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living’. [Psalms 27:13] Yes, indeed; you will see the goodness of the Lord right here, in the place where you are living. You may be troubled and anxious right now, just as Jairus was, but the Lord says, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe’.
He is a REWARDER :
And in this wondrous truth, let your soul find its rest, to know that you have a Father who is King over all the flood, to soar above the storm with Him, knowing that He is the Most High God who loves you. Give thanks unto Him for being your Rewarder; for boosting your confidence this day. And, may your confidence always be Christ centered, and let the promises of God become your experience, for the honor and glory of His Name.
In the Name of Christ Jesus Amen.
