PART 9

The good Lord never wants to deprive us. Instead, he longs for us to maximize our long-term well-being and live a regret-free life. We can get the most out of life and spare ourselves needless discomfort by trusting God’s leading, rather than having to learn by bitter experience. We can snuggle into the assurance that our wise, loving Lord truly cares.

We will quickly move on, but let’s first briefly consider three other angles:

  Maybe those with the deepest regrets are those agonizing for the rest of their lives over what they might have achieved had they exerted themselves a little more.

  More often than we would expect, what we would think would be ‘living the dream’ ends up living a nightmare. Consider, for example, records of all the winners of instant megabucks whose short-term ecstasy turned to tragedy (16 Tragic Lottery Winner Stories). We can be so disastrously wrong about what seems an ideal situation that maybe we really would be better off leaving it in God’s hands.

  Whilst there is no denying that following Christ costs, we need to consider very carefully how exorbitant is the cost of not following him.

A fulfilling life needs challenges. A successful writer of soap operas said happy people are boring people. Let’s plunge deeper into whether for Christians there can be times when it simply isn’t worth all the effort.

We know that our Leader’s agony on the cross was of incalculable worth, even though at the time perhaps every spectator thought it a horrible and useless defeat, and even though millions since, despite the benefit of hindsight, have rejected the salvation he suffered so intensely to provide. Not only was his suffering not wasted, it is his greatest glory. In addition to achieving spiritual wonders as nothing else could ever do, the very thought of his sacrifice floods us with love, awe and admiration for him.

So it is with all who follow him: no matter how useless our efforts might seem in the short-term, all who suffer for our glorious leader have this divine guarantee:

1 Corinthians 15:58  . . . be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (Emphasis mine.)

Anything achieved without Christ will fizzle to nothing (John 15:5) but everything done at his command is of infinite value. This does not mean the priceless worth of our efforts will always be obvious this side of eternity.

Neither does it mean that in the lives of others, what we do in divine obedience will always achieve great things. Their response is in their hands, not ours, nor even God’s. What it means, however, is that our efforts will achieve things of critical importance and will win for us and for our Lord great honor and will be acclaimed as such for all eternity (Brief explanation).

No matter how much being rejected by everyone you are seeking to help can expose you to the snarling lie that your efforts are in vain, challenges can pile far higher than that. Think of an athlete hoping for worldwide fame who, instead, finds himself sentenced to undergoing tough, repetitive, seemingly meaningless training sessions in obscurity. Most of us can multiply that by ten because we have no idea what the divine masterplan is, let alone how our efforts could possibly fit into it. Think of Joseph languishing in prison with everyone convinced he is a sex offender.

Yes, your loving Lord ensures your efforts are never in vain but it might take everything you have to muster the faith to hang on to that truth. And all this adds to your glory, just like every humiliation your Savior endured added to his.

To be in submission to the eternal Lord of glory is to be caught up in missions of divine significance so superhumanly ingenious that the Almighty can confidently tell the greatest human mind:

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And not only are God’s plans magnificent beyond word, they never fail:

Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.

As God’s rain never falls to the ground without bringing life to a desert, so his Son’s tears, sweat and blood never fell in vain. And so it is with everyone whose sensors are locked into following him.

Since the Almighty’s plans are indescribably great and never fail, and he is glued to us by the blood of his only Son and the infinity of his love, not the tiniest speck of anything divinely assigned to us is ever wasted. Here’s another way of saying this:

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory

The never-ending glory is so breathtakingly beyond imagining that it renders light and momentary even Paul’s enormous list of sorrows and agonies.

Why does God delay rewarding his faithful ones?

Some of us entertain the fantasy that life on earth should be a picnic and that leaving this ‘paradise’ is a tragedy. Nevertheless, there can be no denying among Bible believers that the next life is so very much better for Christians. In fact, not just once but in two very different letters, Paul said he would prefer to be in heaven:

2 Corinthians 5:8 we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (NIV and many other versions.)

Philippians 1:23 I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

The Story So Far

Scripture speaks of mind-boggling rewards, but why can’t we have them now?

To be frank, I don’t like making much of the reward because we humans have an appalling tendency to corrupt the most beautiful things and let greed spoil everything.

I recall a pastor saying that whenever he left his family to go on a preaching tour he would return with gifts but his children would get so rapt in his presents that they became barely aware of his presence. So that the focus could be on the joy of being together, he decided to delay gift-giving until a day or so later. Compared with you and the Lord enjoying each other, the most extravagant gifts are mere trinkets.

Nevertheless, eternal rewards are real and immense because God is the loving Lord who delights in showering us with gifts. Moreover, when we are in continual agony and suffering gross injustice, we need to know it is not forever.

The answer to why Christians suffer would be easy if it were because, through ignorance, disobedience, lack of faith, or whatever, they fail to appropriate all the benefits Christ purchased for us on the cross. However, we keep finding more and more biblical affirmation that this is by no means always so. In fact, the question becomes why good Christians suffer. It’s time to look into this.

Continued: Part 10

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