The Awesome Reward

Ellen is a single woman who sensed God calling her to leave her job and enter full-time ministry that paid only a fraction of the salary she was receiving. She sent me this email:

"I began to understand that it wasn't whether or not I was working, but who I was depending on for my sustenance. I would find myself trying to calculate how to do it, forgetting that God told His priests that He was their inheritance and their portion! 

"Today I was supposed to get a check from an elder in our church, but I didn't get it. God has told me very clearly to never ask for money. I obeyed today and went home from church, trusting God for His provision. 

"I had been home a few hours when the elder called. He apologized for not giving me my check and delivered it to my house. I realized though that my fear was broken! I don't need to worry about the provision." Ellen knew that God Himself was with her; He was all she needed.

After Abram had refused riches from the king of Sodom, God told Abram, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (Genesis 15:1). God was saying much more than that He would give Abram a gift although that would have been a marvelous promise. Now God Himself would become his treasure. The God who owns the universe was now his reward.

When we simply desire more of Him and the fulfillment of His perfect will, we can rest with perfect confidence that He will say to us, "I am your protection and your very great reward."

God it is You we seek. We want each of our prayers to be our expression of longing for You and Your will. We can forego many things, but we cannot forego Your presence and Your pleasure.

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple" (Psalm 27:4).