A Great Reward

How many times have you competed for something in your life?  Go back to your childhood.  You probably competed in a spelling contest or drawing contest.  Or maybe you competed in track at school in Jr High.  Most likely you would win a ribbon for those grade school competitions.  Then maybe in High School or College you were on a team and your team competed for a trophy.  Next in life you probably competed for a job promotion and the prize was a better office and pay raise.  Maybe you were a salesperson and you competed to sell the most of your company’s product.  They offered a trip to Hawaii for the most sales made.  As humans we tend to love competition and the chance for a great prize.  Yet we could have a great reward that would surpass any prize we could think we would want to win.  Read Psalm 19:11-13.

“11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me.”

Previous to these verses we had read that God’s Word did many other great things for us.  In verse 11 we see that it also provides us with a great reward.  It may sound strange, but to understand our sins, our ability to be cleansed from them and to not be dominated by them anymore is a great reward.  To have that freedom is a marvelous feeling.  No earthly prize could ever compare.  So it just makes good common sense to know God’s Word and receive God’s great reward.

Behaving Wisely Is The Standard

Sometimes we let our behavior be dictated by others behavior.  Whatever others find acceptable, we find acceptable.  David decided to be different than those around him.  Read I Samuel 18:30 -

“Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war. And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed.”

David chose to behave more wisely than all the other servants.  He could have taken advantage of being the mighty warrior and enjoy the prizes of war.  He could have become full of pride and bragged about his great warrior deeds.  He could have pushed his weight around as the leader.  He could have sought to over throw King Saul and take over the throne.  Yet, unlike other great warriors throughout history, he chose to continue to serve King Saul, even when Saul had previously tried to kill him.  David didn’t just do what everyone else did.  He made behaving wisely the standard.  As a result, he was rewarded with being highly esteemed.

What an encouragement to be rewarded in such a way.  His choice to be different and honor God and behave wisely was difficult, but he was rewarded over and over again throughout his life.  So even though it may be difficult to behave wisely and differently than those around you, be encouraged and remember that God will reward you in only the way He can reward you.

Words of Satisfaction

Remember that song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”? Not the best lyrics, but it is trying to make the point that the man tries all these different things and can’t get any satisfaction out of them.  This song represents a very sad way to live.  Yet, God has made us to live our lives in ways that are more than just satisfying; our lives were to be fulfilling.  Jesus came that we might have an abundant life.  One of the ways that God teaches in His Word to get satisfaction is through the words we speak and share with others.  Read Proverbs 12:14.

A man will be satisfied with good by the words of his mouth, and the work of a man’s hands will reward him.

Many times we don’t really realize how important our words are.  We carelessly speak words, thinking it doesn’t really matter.  We say to ourselves, “What does it matter what I said.  They will forget what I said anyways.”  However, in reality, once you have said something you can’t take it back.  You can try to apologize or delete that post from Facebook, but if someone has seen or heard your words you cannot erase them from their minds.  Rash, foolish or angry words will end up bringing us bad things.  We will get no satisfaction out of them.  Good, kind, helpful, loving, wise words will reap all kinds of benefits.  We will gain satisfaction from them.  Basically this is the concept of “reaping what you sowing”.  What an encouragement to know that God will bless us for the good words we use. If you plant good seed, you will get good plants.  So think of your words seeds and maybe you will see great rewards grow out of them.

 

In the Habit of Trusting

Sometimes we can feel like everything is going wrong, or nothing is working out, or our plans and hopes will not come to pass, or our service to the Lord is not being blessed.  We may be being chased down by physical enemies or spiritual enemies in this life, but we always have God covering our back.  Unfortunately the circumstances can wear on our emotions.  Our heart becomes saddened and we might even become angry at God.  We just cannot understand what is going on.  We may even say, “Why isn’t God helping us?”

David had many bad things happen to him during his life.  When he wrote Psalm 63 he was on the run from King Saul and was hiding in the desert/wilderness.  What a difficult place to be.  He was in an ugly and uncomfortable environment.  He, his men and their families were at risk of death from Saul or lack of supplies.  They were tired and probably could have begun feeling that being faithful to God had not been worth it.  After all they could have eliminated King Saul and taken over the throne back when they were holding Saul’s own spear and were standing over him while he slept or when Saul had come in to the cave and they were hiding in the back of it.  Yet David did not raise up his hand against the King and honored God.  Read what David wrote in Psalm 63: 9-11,

“9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.”

All throughout David’s life we see an underlying theme.  David trusted in the Lord to take care of situations like he was in over and over again.  He was in the habit of trusting the Lord.  He trusted God so much that he didn’t even worry about if God took care of the person in this life or after the person had died.  Yes, as you can see by his writing, he hoped God would take care of his enemy now, but he also wrote about the person going down to the lower parts of the earth.  He knew God would be the person’s judge and would take care of it.  He knew one way or another that God will stop the mouths of the ones who lie.  He also stated, “Everyone who swears by Him shall glory.” What an interesting perspective.  Here David is in a bad situation and he knows that if he trusts in God that he shall still receive glory.  In other words, God will honor us for our faithfulness, whether it is now or in our life to come.  Our problem is that we just naturally want to receive physical blessings now or see our enemies taken care of now.  We have to accept that the physical blessings might not happen right now.  Just like when a parent knows when to reward their child for their behavior, we have to trust that God will reward us when the time is right.

It just makes common sense to be in the habit of trusting the Lord.  Remember trust the Lord no matter what is going on in your life.

Behaving Wisely Is The Standard

Sometimes we let our behavior be dictated by others behavior.  Whatever others find acceptable, we find acceptable.  David decided to be different than those around him.  Read I Samuel 18:30 -

“Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war. And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed.”

David chose to behave more wisely than all the other servants.  He could have taken advantage of being the mighty warrior and enjoy the prizes of war.  He could have become full of pride and bragged about his great warrior deeds.  He could have pushed his weight around as the leader.  He could have sought to over throw King Saul and take over the throne.  Yet, unlike other great warriors throughout history, he chose to continue to serve King Saul, even when Saul had previously tried to kill him.  David didn’t just do what everyone else did.  He made behaving wisely the standard.  As a result, he was rewarded with being highly esteemed.

What an encouragement to be rewarded in such a way.  His choice to be different and honor God and behave wisely was difficult, but he was rewarded over and over again throughout his life.  So even though it may be difficult to behave wisely and differently than those around you, be encouraged and remember that God will reward you in only the way He can reward you.

Behaving Wisely Has Its Rewards

David, the man after God’s own heart, was such a great example for us. His humanness and love for the Lord always showed. His life gives us hope that we can make it through anything. It gives us hope that God will continue loving us no matter what sin we commit. He is our example of how to praise the Lord no matter what is going on in our lives. Last, but not least, he was our example on how important it is to behave wisely. In I Samuel 18 we read:

“5 So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.”

As a result of David behaving wisely, he is rewarded. King Saul sets him a position of leadership and all the people accepted him. David could be trusted. His behavior, words and decisions were deemed wise and gave him respect. People prefer to follow leaders who behave wisely. No one respects a fool or follows a fool. If they do, it is for a very short time. We see this all the time when watching famous people who mouth off or do stupid things. In the end that person will only be rewarded with being remembered for that foolish word or action they did. Whereas, someone like David is remembered for being a man after God’s own heart who behaved wisely. Which way would you rather be remembered? Show great wisdom and be rewarded for behaving wisely.