God is My Delightful Reward
Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. “
We all have dreams…
Every once in a while you will catch us staring off into the distance with a blank look on our face just….dreaming.
We dream of losing weight, and quitting smoking. We dream of a nicer home, and a car that actually runs well for more than a week at a time. We dream of a college degree and a better job. We dream of a peaceful home and that our entire family lives for Jesus.
Some of us dream of the favor of God. We dream of bigger church buildings and larger congregations. We dream of hungry souls in our altars crying out to God for salvation. We hope for miracles. We pray for the impossible.
Understand, we’re grateful for all that we have, but we want more that what we see. Our spirits are dissatisfied with where we are at, and our hearts are hungry for the blessings of God.
We don’t just want stuff, we want to be better for God, to live closer to God, and to do more for God.
• We want to achieve more.
• We want our lives to matter.
• We want to make a difference.
You see, when we are delighting ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ; He is going to place certain desires upon our heart. He is going to imprint His dream for our lives upon our heart in the form of desires.
God always gives His people dreams for high achievement. And when God gives you a dream you must believe it will come true.
In fact,
Hebrews 11:6 says that
“without faith, it is impossible to please Him; for He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder…”
There is no such thing as an impossible dream with God.
In
Matthew 19:26. Jesus said
“with God, all things are possible.”
God is pleased with people who attempt the impossible through faith in Him.
Yet for every dream we have, there’s a doubt that accompanies it. There’s a voice inside our head telling us all of the reasons why our dream is still just a dream. That voice points out all of our insufficiencies, all the obstacles in our way, and all of our past failures.
And, for many, that voice is the exact thing that immobilizes us.
For every promise we hear from God, some Debbie-downer gives us a reason why it will never happen.
Think about it,
• When God told Noah a flood was coming, everybody laughed.
• When Joseph told his family about the dreams of leadership God gave him, his brothers hated him, and his daddy rebuked him.
• When God told Abram he was going to have a son in his old age, his wife laughed at him.
• When God told Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem showed up to make fun of him as he worked.
• When David wanted to fight Goliath, his older brother, Eliab, mocked him, and King Saul told him he was too young.
• When Hannah prayed for a son, Eli slapped her face.
• While Job still trusted, his wife told him to curse God, and die.
And yet, in each of these situations, as faith was extended, miracles took place.
• Noah built an ark when there was no rain. He worked on it for 120 years, and for 120 years everyone thought he was a loon. Understand, it’s not just that it didn’t flood in those 120 years, it’s that it had never rained before in history. People had never even seen rain.
But Noah’s faith paid dividends. When the door of the ark was shut, the rain started to fall, and the floodwaters rose, Noah’s faith didn’t seem so foolish.
• When Joseph told his family about the dreams God gave him, they hated him, and thought he was a bit too big for his britches. But his dreams became their salvation. Every evil thing they did to him just pushed him closer to the dream’s fulfillment.
His brothers stole his coat, but they could not steal his dream.
You can take my daddy’s coat, but you can’t steal my Father’s favor!
• When Nehemiah heard of the destruction of Jerusalem, and gathered people to rebuild the walls of the city, his enemies laughed at him. They said “will he revive these stones out of this burned rubbish?”(
Nehemiah 4:1)
1. They made fun of his materials.
2. They made fun of his work.
3. They mocked his ability.
But Nehemiah just kept building that wall until it was completely restored. You see, sometimes God rebuilds our lives using the wreckage from our past. God can bring life from death, joy from mourning & laughter from pain.
• David was told he was too young. His brother questioned his motives. The King he served tried to get him to wear his armor. But David found Saul’s armor was a coat that did not fit.
He killed his giant with an inferior weapon and a Superior God.
• Hannah was misunderstood, and falsely accused by the man of God, but Hannah’s faith brought a reward.
Her desperation caught God’s attention.
• Job lost everything but the voice of criticism and doubt in his life, but God rewarded Job’s faithfulness with a double portion of everything he had lost. God even restored Job’s relationship with his wife.
You see, delighting in the Lord pays dividends. When God remains the object of our affection, blessings flow. The surest way to overcome criticism is to ignore it. The surest path to success is through a passionate pursuit of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When I’m misunderstood, God is my reward.
When I’m falsely accused, God is my reward.
When my brothers abuse me, God is my reward.
When no one values my work, God is my reward.
When my family rejects me, God is my reward.
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