St Andrews PCEA Church - Nairobi

Scripture of the Week:

“… Giving ourselves to the work of the Lord knowing that our work in Him is not in vain”.[1 Corinthians 15:58]

Thought of the week:

“When God rewards us, he does not go for the best, he goes for everybody who did the work. As long as you do good you become a candidate of a godly reward and not until you do the best good.”

Life could be very boring and unfulfilling if the works of our hands were not rewarded. Life has what we can call an “auto reward scheme”. The way we handle life determines a big deal how life handles us or if you would, rewards us. For instance, if we take good care of our bodies the life’s auto reward is good health. Again if we take good stewardship responsibility over the environment, nature will auto reward us with overwhelming benefits.

Looking at the ongoing World Cup in South Africa, we can arguably say reward is the key motivator of the world most loved game. The games are not random; they are reward oriented. The teams have their eyes fixed on the prestigious cup and the players’ inspiration attached to the monetary promises given to them by their governments should they win the cup. Detach these rewards from the game and you will get something else which is not football!  The total prize money for the 2010 World Cup winner is $30 million with the runners-up getting $24 million. Besides, each team has a promise from their governments of hefty rewards should they win the cup. For instance, the USA team has been offered the biggest cash bonus of any team in World Cup history at $895,131 per man. These we can say is inspiration enough!

God as well is in the business of rewarding. He is actually the chief rewarder. Hebrews says he rewards those who earnestly seek him [11:6] and Paul to the Ephesians says that he rewards everybody for every good thing he does. [6:10]. The God’s reward scheme [GRS] is by no means like the world’s reward scheme [WRS]. It’s the master scheme, even a greater reward scheme. There are three distinguishing marks of a GRS: First, unlike the WRS, God does not reward us for adding glory to him. Those who will win the 2010 world cup will be rewarded by their governments for adding more glory to their nation and making it outstanding among nations. Best students are not just rewarded for doing good to themselves but more so what they do to the school itself in the addition chapter. The good we do, we don’t do it to God, we do it to ourselves and when God rewards us, he does that not of what we have done to him but simply for the good we have done. God’s glory and splendor is not added or reduced by what we do or don’t do. Besides, God doesn’t need any goodness from us to be, he is actually goodness itself!

Secondly, unlike the WRS the GRS is not guided by what we can call the best factor. People are rewarded and honored on the basis of the excellence of their achievements. The topmost prizes go to the topmost achievers. It is the team that wins in the final that will carry home the World Cup and not all the teams that played in the final. It is the student who gets most marks that is ranked number one and not all the students who sat for the exams. The driver of this model is simply competition. Not so with God! Actually if there is a word that misses in the dictionary of God is competition. This justifies the jealousy of God, “I can’t share my glory with any other.” When God rewards us, he does not go for the best he goes for everybody who did the work. As long as you do good you become a candidate of a godly reward and not until you do the best good. God doesn’t have a marks register, he doesn’t not consider the other when blessing you. In other words your blessings are not dependent on how you fair among others but how you fair on the goodness scale.

Finally, unlike in the WRS when chances of luck and unfairness can determine who gets the reward, the GRS has no room whatsoever for these. There are people who get rewards out of sheer luck and unfairness by the determinants. There was a discussion the other day about whether penalties are a good way of determining a winner in football because many thought it was a matter of luck. We also know people who are declared the best out of unfair considerations.  The rewards of God are not accidental in any way. I have heard many Christians say they are not people of lack but of blessings. If this is true we also know that obedience is a prerequisite to godly blessings. God is not unfair in his rewarding. He is not unjust to forget any good thing we do. There are many people who think that they have escaped God’s list of reward candidates. They think they have worked hard for God but he has forgotten them. The truth is there is nobody who does good in vain. It may go unnoticed among the mortals but it is noticed by God himself and he has promised us that our work in Him is not in vain. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord and he is in the business of rewarding those who commit themselves to what is good and this reward is perfect, even a greater reward.

“… Giving ourselves to the work of the Lord knowing that our work in Him is not in vain”. [1 Corinthians 15:58]

Kariuki Apollo - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it