After a long time, the master returned and settled accounts. The man who received five talents brought the other five. "Master," he said, "you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have earned five more." The master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness."--Matthew 25:19-21
God Himself, as in the parable, initiates a system of earned rewards and He does it with a presentation, a deposit. The master gave his servant five talents, something too precious for the servant to have gotten for himself. In our case, God begins the transaction with life and salvation, gifts way beyond our ability to gain, and He gives them freely.
Once we receive these, however, things change.
Once we walk into God's open arms of redemption, the business of our life in Him begins. This is when we become eligible for earned rewards, an increasing share in His kingdom and His goodness.
We purchase these not with gold or silver or coins saying "In God We Trust", but by actually trusting Him. We purchase our reward with the coin of God's realm--steadfast faith, righteousness, and the making of disciples. By these we earn our crown in heaven, a crown based not on God's incomparable gift to us, but by what we have given back to Him.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for His appearing.-2Timothy 4:7-8
God is good, and faithful, and worthy of all of our trust. Thank you for your message here.
ReplyDeleteAll the money in the world cannot buy us His gift of salvation and yes, the rewards are eternal.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Joan
It all really boils down to actually trusting in Him, doesn't it? And I've come to think a coin is great place for that motto, because the first lessons in trust He gave me were all about would I trust Him to provide, by seeking His kingdom and righteousness instead of fretting over money.
ReplyDelete(So glad I finally figured out how to get my comments to stick here! I have enjoyed so many of your past posts.)
Hmm...I never thought about it that way, that the coin is a good place for a trust message in exactly the place we might miss it. So glad you could finally add your comment. It's a good one.
DeleteGod looks at our heart, but man looks at the outside appearance, this came to mind as I was reading your post. I'm so glad we can't buy our way into heaven, God cares about so much more than our pocket book, he cares about our heart.
ReplyDeleteI've often found it curious that our country (with its near obsession of separating Church and State) keeps the motto, and places it on our currency. It definitely reminds me to keep my material desires in check. God will provide; we showed up here with nothing. We all too often reach for "shopping therapy" to take the edge off of a bad day instead of looking for some of the real reasons we are upset or hurting. Thank you for bringing up this topic! and for joining this week's blog hop!
ReplyDelete