The Lord Rewarded Me

“The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;

    according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.

For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

    and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his rules were before me,

    and his statutes I did not put away from me.

I was blameless before him,

    and I kept myself from my guilt.

So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.” (Psalms 18:20-24 ESV)

The subject matter has to do with enemies coming against us and persecuting us and mistreating us and perhaps who are even seeking to take our lives. We are not to give way to fear of them nor to fear what they might do to us or say about us. If we are walking by faith in Jesus Christ, in obedience to his commands, and not in sin, we can trust in the Lord through every trial, and through every difficulty, and through every attack of the enemy against our lives and against our witness for Jesus Christ.

Now this does not mean that our Lord is going to rescue us from every trial and tribulation and persecution coming against us. He may rescue us physically from some of them, but perhaps not from all of them. I mean, take the apostle Paul for example. He was continually being persecuted and placed in prison and beaten and even left for dead because of his testimony of Jesus Christ. Yes, he had some supporters, which helped, but he had enemies, too, and he struggled for the spiritual growth of the Christians.

And then God gave Satan permission to inflict him with some kind of “thorn in the flesh,” which we know was not of a sin nature, but perhaps something physical, like blindness, and he prayed for the Lord to remove it from him. He pleaded with the Lord 3Xs to take it away. But the Lord’s response to him was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So Paul’s conclusion was, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

So, you see, even if we are living godly and holy lives, pleasing to the Lord Jesus, and we are those for whom righteousness is what we practice, and not wickedness, and even if we keep the ways of the Lord, in practice, and we are not wickedly departing from him, as so many others are, it doesn’t mean that life is going to go smooth for us or that we won’t have enemies or that we won’t be hated and persecuted. We will be! And we will be because we love the Lord and we are walking in his ways and sin is not our practice.

So our rewards from God may not be what we would like to have in the flesh, but our rewards are spiritual rewards, and they may not be the “happy-happy” kind, either, which make us feel good inside. For it may be that he will bless us with more ministry opportunities and responsibilities, and those may increase the level of persecution against us. So, the reward there is really that God is using us for his purposes and for his glory to touch other human lives with his love and grace. And that is rewarding!

So, as followers of Jesus, we need spiritual insight into what the Christian life is all about and regarding how God works in and through our lives for his purposes and for his glory. For just because we have clean deeds and clean hearts and clean minds, spiritually speaking, and so we are walking in his ways and in his truth, and not in sin, it doesn’t mean we will be rewarded in ways that the world might consider rewards. But he will grow us in him and he will increase our ministry to reach even more people for salvation.

But the message that we must be giving to the people must not be the “feel-good” messages which are so prevalent today which dilute and alter the character of God/Christ, and of his church, and of his gospel, to make them more acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh. We must teach Christ crucified, dead, buried, and risen from the dead that we might die to sin and walk in obedience to his commands in holy living. For if sin is what we obey, and not God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Teach Them  

An Original Work / May 24, 2012

Based off various scriptures

Open up the blinded eyes of

Those who walk in sin’s darkness.

Turn them to the light of Christ

And to His righteousness.

Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.

Turn them to the peace of Christ,

So they may receive forgiveness

And eternal life. 

Teach them to put off their old selves

And their former way of life,

And to put on their new self,

Reborn to be like Christ;

To not copy worldly customs;

Be transformed in life and mind;

Obey freely His word in them,

Pleasing unto God.

Teach them how to love their neighbors

Truly as they love themselves;

Be a witness; share the gospel;

Satan’s lies dispel;

Comfort all who mourn in sadness;

Share Christ’s love and joy today.

Do this through your life and witness

For your Lord always. 

https://vimeo.com/125485489