REWARDS
Revelation 11:18” “The nations were angry, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth”
1) FEAR OF GOD: Look at those lovely promise squeezed between the above scripture:” rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great..” Rewards are promised for those who fear the name of the Lord. Amen. A Christian name plate on your forehead is not enough, you need to fear God in all your ways. Got that friend? Fear of God should keep you away from shady friends, shady deals, creepy corrupt politicians, fear of God should keep you away from bad company, bribe and every form of evil. Jeremiah 17:5 "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.” Curses come on those who do not fear God but man.
Proverbs 18:10 says “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. “ Friend, where are you running? Consultants, Website, friends, relatives or the bar??? None can help you! Blessings cannot be bought with mantras, we need to turn to the Lord Jesus who is the “Source of our blessings”. We have ignored Him enough! Churches would not be empty, our children would not be flooding the pubs and malls on Sundays, we would not be muttering slogans like, “In ……. we trust”, if we have placed our trust in God ! Got that?
Today I am talking about ‘holy fear’ for the Lord. Anybody listening? It’s a challenge to you and me as we read, “But for ‘you who fear my name will be blessed!” Forget the world, but this is an irrevocable promise by God for those who fear His Name. He says you shall be blessed! Fantastic! These are not electoral promises which would be forgotten after the ballot, never, these are the promises of an unchanging God! Fear of God sheds all other fears in our life! You would never bother about sickness, uncertainty, recession or debts. When the British Reality TV Star Jade Goody died of cervical cancer, on the day she was diagnosed in August 2008 of the disease, Cancer Research UK witnessed ten times the usual number of hits to its website. It has become known as the 'Jade Effect.’ Such is the fear of the world!
I like what Peter says here, he says, “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.1 Peter 1:17 Do we? It is not with fear that He is going to physically hurt us if we miss the mark but we obey Him instead with godly fear. Fear out of love for Him!
In one of the corporate sectors where I worked, once in a month they would go out for a luncheon-get-together. On one particular day, a young married woman told us that she has to get her father’s permission to come out with us. Since she was a married woman, we wondered why she has to seek her father’s approval. We asked her if he would get angry if she goes out for lunch. She said, “not at all, since he makes sudden visits to the office to see me, I don’t want to hurt him but I want to inform and seek his permission before I step out of the office.” I don’t want to hurt my dad! I have noticed her dad come to meet her in the office with her favorite food specially prepared for her and a beautiful rose too. Great love indeed!
That is what it means to walk in godly fear. Friend, our relationship with God should be like this!
2) INTEGRITY:
Proverbs 11:18 states, "The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward".
Proverbs 11.28:
“He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.” Did you hear that? This is precious!
Before I go ahead explaining about this point, I would like to emphasize that are there two kinds of rewards:
True rewards
Fake rewards
Let me explain, rewards that come from God is pure, read: James 3:17-18 (KJV) “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” This scripture is key for you to understand the rest of this subject. The devil manipulates vulnerable people with guileful ways and makes them fall into expensive purchases with a name plate ‘Blessings from God’. I was in the Bank Manager’s room when he was using his super skills to convince a man who already had a running housing loan and the manager was flattering him to buy another one with his devious financial talk. Alas, like a goat going for slaughter, this man fell prey to buying another flat on loan. This is called FAKE REWARD. Some people conduct themselves in strategic, guileful ways, looking out ONLY for their own interests. Mark this point! Anybody listening? Since I worked for a multinational bank I know very well how intelligent, brilliant, shrewd, astute people fall for greed of money and opulence.
Once they have the noose in their neck with heavy EMIs now these people who once were used mightily by God are doing extra work and spiritual growth takes back seat. Finally it is death.
Jesus said in Matthew 13:42-43 “They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Yes REWARDS are given only for the righteous! The houses, cars and electronic gadgets purchased through loans will be thrown into the blazing fire when you leave this earth.
I hope now you understand the meaning of FAKE REWARDS!
TRUE REWARDS
I heard a testimony of a senior Pastor who completes reading the Bible once in 3 months, sets aside 3 days to completely stay away from everything and prostrates at the feet of the Lord with loud cries and weeping. He has five children: 3 boys and 2 girls who he brings up very strictly in the fear of God. I watched his testimony on youtube and was immensely blessed, also it helped me take lot of resolutions too. Eventually all his three boys became wonderful pastors and his two daughters are also serving the Lord. This is called TRUE REWARDS!
When my 24 years old son Ps Joshua said that he was doing ‘Night prayers’ with his friends, I praised God for this True Rewards. My daughter Shalina (also a pastor) started early morning 5am zoom prayers during Covid lockdown , that continues till date, I thanked God for the True Rewards.
