Rewards...

We all like to be winners, right? Some of us are a tad more competitive than others, but when it comes right down to it I don't know of a single person that goes into any game, event, whatever saying "Oh boy, I hope I lose this!!" (Unless it's Weight Watchers! haha) The question is however, what is the prize? My son is deep into his basketball season and with tournaments just a few weeks away and his team having a pretty good season so far I can see their focus beginning to shift a little. I see them looking ahead to the tournaments with 3 games still to go in the regular season. How often have we seen this happen in sports? Teams begin to think on the "big" game going into a game with a team that should be an easy win only to suffer a major upset. It happens in sports. It happens in our Christian walk too.

I think sometimes we get so focused on our eternal reward that we lose sight of the fact that God longs to reward us on this earth too. I spent alot of my life believing that God didn't want the best for me. That He was just waiting for me to go one step too far and then He'd zap me with a lightning bolt or strike me dead. IMAGINE?! UGH! Praise His blessed, holy name I'm not that person anymore!! He has shown me that He "who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with GOOD THINGS" (Ps 103:4-5 emphasis mine) really does want the best for me. He's shown me that when I delight myself in HIM, He will give me "the desires of my heart". No, He's not gonna give me that new GMC Yukon (in white please -haha) that I've been wanting, but He'll change my desires to HIS will for me. THAT is a reward!!

Smack in the middle of the "Hebrews Hall of Faith" is a little nugget that the Lord showed me a few years ago and it truly changed my life. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that HE REWARDS those who earnestly seek him." Heb. 11:6 emp. mine Now it doesn't say that believing in God brings a reward. Satan believes in God and we know what his reward will be. It's believing AND having faith in Him AND earnestly seeking HIm. He said that if we seek Him, we will find Him and that He is at the door knocking so it's not like we've got to go to the ends of the earth in our seeking. It's going right to the door of your heart, opening it, asking Him in and then giving Him free reign once He's there. THEN you get the rewards. Reward of His Presence in your life. Reward of hope, in spite of life's worst circumstances. Reward of peace in raging storms. Reward of eternal life with Him in heaven. Now THAT'S a reward worth focusing on!!