rewards, wether ya like 'em or not!

Have you noticed how most parents get their kids to help with jobs? It’s usually by promising them a reward. When my little brother Mark was younger, I could get him to do absolutely anything for a piece of candy. I remember one day several years ago, the two of us were playing together and I told him that I would give him a piece of candy if he kissed my feet, and he did! Now that he’s older, Mark isn’t quite so desperate for candy anymore, but he will do almost anything for computer time or time with his friends. Rewards aren’t simply incentives for children either. Adults go to work faithfully so they will be rewarded with money when they are done. I think God realizes this too, because He offers rewards for our spiritual life. He knows that if He tells us that if we are peacemakers, we will inherit the kingdom of God, and that makes us want to be peacemakers. (Sometimes it doesn't look like God is giving us a reward, because our enemies still hate us, even when we love and pray for them. But God often rewards us simply by assuring us that He's pleased with what we did.)

Daniel was accustomed to hearing from the Lord. When Darius had a dream that he didn’t know the meaning to, God gave Daniel the interpretation of it, and when a different king saw strange writing on the wall (written by God), Daniel heard from the Lord what it meant. And yet, one day, he experienced a vision that gave him so much awe and fear that he was terrified and his skin turned white, as he tremblingly fell on his face to the ground. It was Gabriel, the angel, and the word he spoke to him was this: “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words” (Daniel 10:12). Then, he proceeded to give him a prophecy for the future. So he was saying that the very reason he was even there, speaking to Daniel, telling him not to be afraid, was because God had heard his words, and had seen that Daniel had been humbling himself before God, seeking to understand His ways. Now all his work had paid off. In a way, this was his reward.

However, in Hosea, God tells his people that because they have turned away to other things and forgotten Him, He will “…punish them for their ways, and reward them their deeds” (Hosea 4:9). This is a completely different kind of reward. These people have not done what He told them to do, and He is “rewarding” them by punishing them.

Now here’s my admonition: If you are doing something God is telling you to do, but it’s really hard, or you have been waiting for something He’s promised you, but it seems to be taking too long, remember that whatever you choose to do, He will give you a reward. For example, if you endure temptation, you will receive a crown of life, and if you fear Him and obey His commands, you will become wise. But if you give up and follow after something else, He will punish you. God doesn’t just make us do things because they are hard, He makes us do them so that we will be able to receive a good reward, which will cause us to be much happier in the end.