Check out Faith Part 1 and Faith Part 2
Does talking about rewards make you uncomfortable? Are Christians supposed to look for rewards? We know we can’t earn our way into Heaven but is there anything that God does for us when we obey and believe Him? Are there any added benefits to faith? Yes!
When God chose David to be king of Israel, Samuel called him a “man after His own heart,” (1 Samuel 13:14). We know David sought blessing and reward based on his behavior before and after he was king. He was blessed with a kingdom and a princess because of his faith when he saw Goliath. He even double-checked what the reward for killing the giant would be before he spoke to Saul.
26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”
1 Samuel 17:26-27
We know it was his defeat of Goliath that Saul rewarded but we also know that the Bible says that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). There was no defeating this Philistine without faith. God had built faith and ability in David over the years as he performed his role as a shepherd. This role wasn’t glamorous, but it was the training ground for a warrior and a king who loved and trusted the God of Angel Armies. God would give David all of Israel if he just kept faith and obeyed Him over the next decades.
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
1 Samuel 17:32-37
David was hardly the only Old Testament believer who was rewarded for their faith. Hebrews 11 details many others. You see, it pleases God when we have faith, and the Bible says it isn’t even possible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Abel still speaks thousands of years after death because of his faith, Noah became the heir of righteousness, and Abraham and Sarah became the parents of a nation so vast and so longstanding that they can’t be counted.
Joshua and Israel watched their enemy’s walls fall around Jericho because of their faith, Rahab and her family were spared, and she is recorded in the bloodline of Jesus. Hebrews also mentions Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, and women whose loved ones were raised back to life. Kingdoms rose and fell because of faith, and things that should never have been possible were provided by God because of faith, but these Old Testament heroes died before the greatest reward of faith was available to mankind.
Salvation.
We are rewarded for our faith in Jesus with the most unbelievable rewards. Our long list of sins, past and future, is wiped clean. When we stand before the Judge of the Universe we will be acquitted. The Holy Spirit literally dwells in us. We are given spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. Forgiveness and grace enable us to change into what God has always intended and accomplish the tasks He set for us before we were born.
We are made right with Yahweh because of our faith in the worthiness of the sacrifice that Jesus made. This reward is incredible! We receive what Adam and Eve had in the garden with Him. Immediate closeness and fellowship with God and we have been promised an eternity of it. God’s promises have never failed.
Faith and obedience go hand in hand here. Remember when we read what James said in Faith Part 2 about faith without works? He referenced demons who we know refuse to obey God.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
James 2:18-20
So just knowing that Jesus should be Lord isn’t enough. We have to submit; real faith leads to action! God is not waiting for us to go through a set of ceremonies or say the right words. He can see our hearts and knows when you have faith, but we will know it and others will know it when we speak and act, when we say yes, when we start operating like we serve the King of Kings, when we obey, when we love, when we start doing things that shouldn’t be possible. Things we could never do without God.
Faith in Jesus leads to faith that we have the authority that He gave us. When we join with other Christians whose faith leads to action, we start seeing some crazy things. Jesus tells us in Mark that faith is necessary in prayer. Where does this faith come from? God! He built David’s faith, and He builds ours. Testimony in the Bible and from our own lives and the lives around us are building blocks. All we have to do is trust.
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly[f] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
James 5:14-16
The reward for faith in prayer is answered prayers. God is in control of all the power and resources and He rewards faith with answered prayer. James who was taught by Jesus instructs the church on faith in the same way when it comes to illness.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:14-16
Do you notice any themes? These prayers of faithare also contingent on forgiveness and repentance, which are some of the deeds/works of faith! Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness, and how do we, the reader, know he had faith? Because he acted in obedience, another work of faith.
Faith is not just something we strive for or mimic when we see it modeled in others, it is the absolute beginning of our right relationship with God. All we have to do is take the faith He has given us and join Him in building it up. The best thing to do with our faith is to seek Him, and our reward will be great. He will let us find Him.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
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