Yes Your Efforts Will Be Rewarded!

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

What does it matter? What difference does my prayer and service to God matter? Do I ever do enough? Do they ever really produce any fruit? Am I even worthy to serve God?

People sometimes feel like this. The enemy of our soul works to create obstacles to our desired efforts. He works to create distractions that take our attention and focus away from what is important. He works to discourage us, screaming in our ear about the lack of success in our efforts. If we face obstacles, if we lose focus, if we get discouraged, then we will lose faith and slowly give up. Then he has won and we’ve lost out.

Jesus warned us this could happen. In a parable about being faithful He talked about the one who strayed off course saying, “But if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and begins oppressing the other servants, partying, and getting drunk—well, the master will return unannounced and unexpected…” Luke 12:44-46 NLT) Lets just say things go south from there!

God has created each and every person with a destiny that is to interwoven with God’s plan for mankind. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Psalms 27:14 (NLT) says, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

As you seek God through His word and prayer, He will lead you to a good Bible teaching church. He will help you build relationships and get involved serving others. He will direct your steps, unfold gifts He has placed within you, and help you use them to serve others and fulfill His plan for your life. Much of what you do will be seen and appreciated by God only. If you look for the appreciation and glory of man, you will disappointed. Learning to do what you do for Him from a pure and right motivation will build the best of God in you and godly character will be formed within you.

If you look to others to appreciate everything you do, you’ll burn out, quit, and get off course until you’ve strayed from God and become like the servant off course that we just read about.

Don’t let anything knock you off course. The Lord is faithful to help you get right back on course. He does that by first finding a way to get to us and speak to us (LIKE RIGHT NOW, MAYBE???) Then He helps us understand that our efforts aren’t unnoticed and won’t go without being rewarded. And He helps us understand that it’s not about ourselves or our feelings. It’s not about whether we are being noticed or if things are going exactly how we think they should, or even the totality of our efforts. It’s about the Lord! It’s about His plan and His effort to touch and bless lives through our efforts. We do our part cooperatively with love and respect with co-laborers and He does His part—the part that delivers the power of God and changes things! And if we do so faithfully—in faith, and with a right heart attitude, then we can know that He owns the rest! And He has the pleasure of rewarding us. Some of those efforts will be rewarded in this life, as you know and have experienced, and others in the life to come.

Matthew 6:4 (NLT) Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

Matthew 6:6 (NLT) But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

Matthew 6:18 (NLT) Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

And so, let these words lift, encourage, and remind you that your efforts to pray and serve the Lord do count and are rewarded! And God bless you richly in all your doing!

1 Cor. 3:7-8 (NLT) “The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because He is the one who makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose. Yet they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt