Saturday, December 12, 2015

Seeking The Value In God's Reward

One of the many amazing things about our Lord is that He wants better for us then what we even want for ourselves. God’s best is above and beyond the best we can even begin to imagine for ourselves. We often will limit God by thinking what He can’t do, or even what He won’t do for us. I wonder if part of this is because in the midst of our tough times we question God and wonder why it is we have been put on such a difficult road of travel. What is so interesting is this, when we finally do get to the end and see the reasons God put us on that difficult road, we realize that the lessons we have learned along the way have been invaluable to our spiritual walk and we would not have learned these precious lessons by being on an easier road. God has to work things out in us before we get to the end and reap the precious rewards He wants to bestow upon our hearts. If He simply gave us His best without ever working His character in our lives, then the blessings wouldn't stay. We would lose the blessings because we would inevitably end up walking away from them. We would not have the character traits required to keep those blessings in our lives. The rewards would have little to no value to our hearts, or as I like to say, the rewards would not have any of our sweat equity in them. This in turn makes them of little value to us. When we have to work for the reward, it holds a greater value in our hearts and we are not as quick to forget the faithfulness of God when the next trial comes our way.  


The Prodigal Son
This reminds me so very much of the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32 (feel free to take a moment to visit, or revisit this story if it has been a little while since your last visit.) The son was already in a time of character building by working in the vineyard with his father and brother. However, he demanded his reward long before the character had reached maturity and this was evident in his life choices. Due to his impatient nature, a character trait yet to be developed in his life, he lost his reward. He squandered it on selfish desires. God does not want us to lose our reward. He wants us to be blessed and to keep that blessing, but in order for that day to come, we must walk through the hard times and go through the character training necessary that will prepare us for the day that reward comes. There are no shortcuts in character training. When we try to take a shortcut, we end up like the prodigal son and lose the reward.
In the midst of the next hard time, go to the Lord and ask Him what it is He desires to work out in your heart so that you can not only obtain the beautiful reward at the end of the trial, but more importantly, so that you can become more like Christ in the midst of the trial.

Lord, I pray that as the difficult times come our way, that we are going to remember that you are working your character out in our heart. You desire to give good gifts to your children. And you desire those good gifts to be kept by your children. Help us to not grow weary in the midst of the trials, but to focus on you and what it is you desire for us to learn through it all. Thank you that you do not place us in the middle of a storm and then walk away from us to fend for ourselves. Thank you that you do not leave us or forsake us. You are right there with us, helping us grow and mature in our walk with you. Thank you that you are not only here helping us through it all, but you are also cheering us on as we go through it and waiting patiently for us at the finish line with our reward. Thank you that you reward those who diligently seek you. We desire to be diligent in seeking you in the midst of our trials.   

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