“Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee
the desires of thine heart” Psalm 37:4
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25
~ The greatest rewards are those that are often
overlooked--and almost always unexpected. Psalms 37:4, at first look, might
seem like a statement of cause and effect. A person may read the verse by
itself and quickly deduce that if he was to "delight" in God, then he
could have what he wants. The problem is that the focus often shifts from the
first part of the verse to the second. And so the verse is understood to tell a
person that if he wants to get what he wants out of life, then all he need do
is delight himself in the Lord. The result is that the person attempts to live
a lifestyle that he believes will please God, so that he can have what he wants
from this life. An example might be a person who, knowing that God rewards
giving, decides to give twenty percent of his income to the church, feeling
certain that God will give more to him than what he had to begin with. The
problem with this line of thinking is when the motivation is more focused upon
getting a desired reward rather than being a delight to God.
But as a person's focus is directed toward the first part
of Psalms 34:7 ("Delight thyeself in the Lord"), then the rest of the
verse falls into place. For as we draw near to God and delight to do His will,
the desires of our heart are steadily transformed. Our ambitions, goals and
aspirations begin to change--in perspective at least, if not also in direction.
For what we desire moves away from selfish desire and moves toward godly
ambition. We move away from pouring ourselves into doing what will bring us
pleasure and seek how we might please God instead. And as we do, God grants us
the desires of our heart because our desires have become a smaller reflection
of His greater glory.
Jesus told us that "whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for [Jesus'] sake shall find
it" (Matthew 16:25). Our greatest rewards will come when we do not seek
them. As we seek to "lose" our lives, we open ourselves up to be the
instruments of God's purpose, to accomplish His will on earth. Living this way
will bring us great rewards, and that is because we do not seek rewards. We do
not seek to store up treasures in heaven and we do not do our righteous acts so
that God will reward us--we simply do them because--and we require nothing in
return.
If our only reason to live the Christian life is to gain
better reward then we have missed the point. Following Christ means sacrifice
of our wants and giving up of personal desires so that God's greater good will
prevail. ~ ❤️
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