God Wants You to Have a Rewarding Life
There is a saying in life that “what you put in is what you get out”. How true that saying is because I remember when I was a young girl my father instructed my sisters and I to practice our instruments everyday. I used to dislike practicing my instruments, but now that I am older, I see the benefits of practicing my guitar, piano, and trumpet.
By practicing my instruments, I learned discipline, how to be a proficient player, and refine my gift of music. Today I am benefiting from practicing my instruments because I help our worship team every week by playing the piano.
In our Christian life, we too are called by God to have discipline in our walk with him. God wants us to invest in him so that we can reap spiritual rewards like peace, hope, financial, or relationship blessings from God. Many Christians are saved by their confession of faith in Jesus Christ, but sadly they do not have a rewarding life. Why? Because some Christians do not believe that there is any benefit in living a holy life. The good news is God wants us to have a rewarding life but we must invest the time.
Let’s take a look at 2 Peter 1: 3-11 to help us understand the rewards of spiritual maturity. The Bible tells us that God gives us power (2 Peter 1:3) to live a godly life (spiritual mature). The power to live this godly life is by the knowledge we have in God, because he calls us to have a relationship with him, and because of Jesus’ goodness (2 Peter 1: 3). In other words, spiritual maturity is a by-product of spending time with God. When we pray, fast, read his worship, worship, have faith, give, and serve God it is never a waste of time. Are you spending time with God so that you can grow in him? God gives us power to be godly.
Also, we cannot think that spending one minute with God or one day a week with him is enough. Peter tells us that we must actively pursue God everyday. The Bible says “make every effort” (1 Peter 1:5) which means we must make it a priority to seek Him. Our relationship to God and spiritual maturity is determined by our actions.
As we pursue God, Peter calls us to work on specific areas in our life. Peter mentions eight virtues: faith, goodness (moral excellence), knowledge (discerning the will of God), self-control (specifically in the area of sexual purity), godliness, endurance (being able to bear trials and storms), mutual affection, and love (1 Peter 1: 5-8). I love the fact that Peter did not make his list general and say just pursue “love”, he actually gives us different areas to work on. Peter says that we possess these qualities and we must excel in each area. It’s not good for us to have an A+ in faith but a B- in endurance. Just like the musician who practices everyday to get the melody right and the athlete who works on their physique to run faster so must we practice these virtues every day and excel in them.
Because if we excel in these virtues, Peter says it will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive. Unproductive means no fruit (2 Peter 1: 8). Jesus does not want us to stop at the place of conversion where we give our hearts to Jesus. Jesus wants us to have a life of abundance, blessings, and rewards. God wants us to see fruit in our lives.
When you look at your life can you say you can see fruit? Do you see the rewards?
For example, for the person who gives generously to God he/she is reaping the reward of financial blessings and opportunity. For the person who regularly attends worship service he/she is reaping the reward of getting a spiritual dosage of love, peace, and encouragement each week. For the person who is waiting to have sex after marriage he/she will reap the reward of relationship stability.
God wants the best for you but you must do the work. Are you willing to do the work to be spiritual mature so that you will reap the reward?
God is calling us to have a wonderful, rich, and blessed life but we determine the outcome of our life based on our willingness to invest in God.
Remember God gives us power to be godly, he wants us to pursue him, he wants us to work on different areas in our life, and he wants us to be productive and fruitful. Today choose to invest in God and see the rewards of godliness.
