Principle
God always rewards acts of faith.
Explanation
One of the more important life lessons I have learned is that GOD always rewards a step taken in faith.
(This excludes, of course, acts done in some form of misguided faith which are, in reality, sinful or opposed to GOD’s will.)
We have previously established that true faith is not mere belief but action that was driven by belief.
The Bible is full of examples that illustrate this truth. For instance, when Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah, it was a leap of faith and GOD rewarded him for it:
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you did this thing, and for My sake did not spare your beloved son, 17 I will certainly bless you, and assuredly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you obeyed My voice.”
Genesis 22:15-18 OSB
We see another example just a couple of chapters later in Genesis 24:
1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; 4 but you shall go to my land where I was born, and to my tribe, and take from there a wife for my son Isaac.”
5 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land you came from?” 6 But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, who took me from my father’s house and from the land where I was born, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To you and your seed I give this land,’ He will send His Angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his lord, and swore to him concerning this matter.
10 Then the servant took ten of his lord’s camels and some of all his goods and departed, and he went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 Then he said, “O Lord, the God of my lord Abraham, give me success this day, and show mercy to my lord Abraham. 13 Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Now let it be that the virgin to whom I say, ‘Let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know You have shown mercy to my lord.”
15 Thus it happened, before he finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. 16 Now the virgin was very beautiful to behold, and she was a virgin, for no man had known her. She went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Let me drink a little water from your pitcher.” 18 So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 When she finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels, until they finish drinking.” 20 Thus she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. 22 So it was, when the camels finished drinking, the man took golden earrings, each a drachma in weight, and two bracelets for her wrists, ten pieces of gold in their weight, 23 and said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge?” 24 So she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 Moreover she said to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge.” 26 Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.
27 And he said, “Blessed is the Lord, the God of my lord Abraham, who has not allowed His righteousness and His truth to forsake my lord. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my lord’s brethren.” 28 So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things.
Genesis 24:1-28 OSB
There are seemingly innumerable examples in the Scriptures of such faith followed by a subsequent reward.
This is the takeaway for us: GOD always rewards faith. So have faith!
We have previously established that faith is necessary to please GOD. And when someone demonstrates faith, GOD is indeed well pleased. That is why He rewards that faith.
Now, let me be clear. I am not saying that if you have faith, GOD will make your life here easy and you’ll be rich and never have problems and everything will be amazing. That is simply untrue.
GOD wants what is best for each of us. And what is best for us is what matters eternally. And what matters eternally is often at odds with what our flesh wants in the here and now.
GOD loves us so much that He is willing to allow us to suffer now so that we may be blessed later, whether in this life or the next.
And yet, even in the midst of suffering, GOD brings blessings. One of the more comforting promises GOD has given Christians is found in Romans 8:
28 And we have known that to those loving God all things do work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose;
Romans 8:28 YLT
So here’s the point: When you take a leap of faith, it will always be rewarded. That reward may not be what you anticipate. The outcome may not be what you foresaw before you acted. GOD knows far more than we do, obviously, and as a result, He works in ways we don’t understand. GOD can look forward in time like you and I can look backwards. And He orchestrates things together for good so that you will always look back after your leap of faith and say that it was a good decision.
We can look back to events in our past and see where GOD was working. We can’t always see it clearly in the present, but we can almost always see it clearly in hindsight.
As parents, we use behavior modification on our children to reinforce desirable behavior and eliminate undesirable behavior. When our child does something good, we praise and reward them so they’ll keep doing that. When they do something bad, we correct them and discipline them and that is often painful. Pain produces learning. Learning produces wisdom. Wisdom produces character. Character results in (quality, abundant) life. So it is with GOD. He rewards faith.
Leap.
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