Now a few thoughts from Scripture.
Personally, I know how important a good day of rest is. There have been so many times in my life where I have taken a personal retreat day (or week!) and have needed it so that I could refocus and rekindle my drive and motivation.
This may be a blurry line, but this is not the type of work/rest that I am talking about with these posts.
What I am referring to are the tendencies I have to be only talk and no action with my Christian journey. To be someone who will tell others to talk about God, but never share my faith with those who I work with or those I see on a regular basis.
What are the ways we can receive eternal rewards here on earth? Almost every example that I found in the Bible deals with action of some type:
“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water…he will certainly not lose his reward.”
~Matthew 10:42
“The Son of Man… will reward each person according to what he has done.”
~Matthew 16:27
“Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them. Then your reward will be great.”
~Luke 6:35
“You know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does.”
~Ephesians 6:8
“You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
~Colossians 3:24
“Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.”
~2 John 8
Okay, I am seeing a pattern here. That there are some people who will receive more reward when they get to heaven and some people who will “escape the flames” through salvation alone, not receiving any rewards for deeds on earth.
Sound too harsh?
Let’s read on.
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
~1 Corinthians 3:10-15
Now, what do we do with that verse? Pretend it isn’t in the Bible? Keep our eternal perspective only when we come to church on Sunday, then forget it the rest of the week?
So, back to the original statement that I am “too involved in the ‘doing part’ of my faith”. After this week of reflection I have concluded that given enough moments of rest, not stretching myself too thin (view previous entry), and keeping an eternal perspective, this cannot be true in my life, especially now, when I have so much time, talent, and energy to give to God.
Yes, there are times people need a break, myself included. But I honestly believe these times of rest should be short punctuation marks in our life stories that are surrounded by PARAGRAPHS of work that advance God’s Kingdom!
If Jesus himself came down today and said, “Will you serve me?” How hard would you work for Him? I know that I would bust my fourth-point-of-contact to do whatever He needed. If He said, “work for me in the High School ministry”, then I would do it, sold out, 100%.
Would any of your lives change if you saw Jesus right now and He asked you that? Because I can tell you this, HE ALREADY HAS!
And a final thought. Too many times I believed that God wanted me to sing praises to Him at church and that if I truly meant it I was a good Christian. Jesus never said, “If you love me, you’ll sing to me” or “If you love me you’ll read about me every morning before work”.
Yes, those are all good things, but if we aren’t DOING what He has commanded, then I think many times we’re missing out on the bigger picture.
“If you love me, you’ll DO what I command”
~John 14:15
Thoughts?
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