GOD IS A REWARDER OF THEM THAT DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM How do I know this? His Word in Hebrews 11:6 tells me this. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He(God) is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Yesterday, while in one of the jails, this verse came up in the discussion that we were having as an inmate read it to us. When he finished, we asked him what it meant. He answered, Well that is hard to explain. So we went back to part three of this verse and I asked him to tell me what the word rewarder meant. He stated, Well, that is hard to explain. Then I asked him, Okay, what does the word diligent mean? Again he said, I know but that is hard to explain. It had been some time since I had been led to give a teaching on, What is faith, (Hebrews 11:1); Why is faith necessary, (Hebrews 11:6); and Where does faith come from, (Romans 10:7). This man showed us that lots of people skim over Gods Word and never try to understand what it means. The pastor that usually goes into this jail with me had other commitments he had to keep so another pastor from another church served our Lord with me. Thank you Brother Vernon Hardgraves. As I read Hebrews 11:1 to this man, Brother Vernon brought out a point that I had never before heard. NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. As I read, NOW faith, Brother Vernon kept repeating, NOW faith, NOW faith. As Brother Vernon spoke for the third time, I finally heard what he was saying, not yesterdays faith, not faith for tomorrow, next week or next year, but faith for right NOW! We need faith NOW. The faith we had yesterday is what got us to where we are NOW. The faith we need tomorrow will not do us any good today. The faith we have now is what will determine how God works in our lives later. We need NOW faith. We need faith now! Again I thank our God for allowing Brother Vernon to be there to teach, to put on my heart only one word of Hebrews 11:1, that I had never heard before NOW. Now to touch on the two most overlooked words in Hebrews 11:6, rewarder and diligently. A reward is not a gift; it is something we have earned. Our God in His Loving Mercy has given us the Gift of Salvation, the Gift of everlasting life. He has not rewarded us with salvation but when we receive from Him the gift of salvation, there are many rewards He wants to give us as we work and earn them. When we have a job and do a good job we are rewarded with a pay raise and other benefits, we earn a higher position. These things are not gifts since we must earn them. Our God says that when we do well with our whole heart we will not grow weary. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not, Galatians 6:9. Now I must confess, I did not know all that verse and I did not know where it was found. I had a choice to make, I could have said Gods Word says someplace, something like this, or I could choose and did choose to study and find this verse and give a location so you could look it up and read it for yourself. Now to the word diligently. Diligently means to do with your whole heart, put everything into what you are doing, give it your all, and give it your best. We see many things that man makes and sells that look so perfect, so strong, so beautiful, and so desirable. We see a new car that we must have. But 1,000 miles after we have it, it starts to fall apart, it was not put together with diligence. This does not only apply to the things we buy but more so to things we do in our lives. Like the garden we plant. Did we break up all the soil? Did we pick up all the rocks? Did we apply fertilizer to feed our plants? Did we keep all the weeds pulled? Wait! This applies to our marriages too. Did we work on breaking down all the walls, the barriers? Did we work to get all the rocks out of our marriages? Have we fed good food to our marriages? Have we been faithful to our marriages? Have we been diligent always? As I was explaining the two words reward and diligent, I could see that Brother Vernon had words that he, in much diligence, wanted to add to what I was teaching and he said, Bill, show him that verse that tells us to study to show ourselves approved. So we went to 2nd Timothy 2:15, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. And our God in His diligence again reinforced His Word in Hebrews 11:6. Oh how His Word dovetails together. Always our God is diligent. If He were not, He would not ask us to be diligent. Our God is faithful always, if He were not, He would not ask us to be faithful. Our God has never asked us to be anything that He is not. Our God is faithful to His Word and when we diligently are faithful He will reward us, whether we are faithful to our parents, our marriage, our children, our friends, our jobs, or our study of our God and His Holy Word. He, our God, will be diligent to faithfully reward us according to the diligence we have put forth. If we see little or no rewards and yet we know we have given our best, we should not grow weary in doing good because our Lord will faithfully reward us. If we know that we have not given our best, our all and all, then it is time to stop, turn around (repent), and seek our Lord through much prayer and much reading of His Word. But NOW keep the Word diligently on your heart, as you study to show yourself approved. Now I add a word to our Gods Word found in Luke 11:9 and I say unto you, ask in diligence and it shall be given to you in diligence, seek in diligence and you shall find in diligence, knock in diligence and it shall be opened to you in diligence. Be diligent and not lukewarm. O Lord, I thank You for these words You have put upon my heart this morning. I pray, O Lord, that You allow them to speak to all those who will stop and read them. I pray that a diligent work be done in their hearts as they seek You in a more diligent way. In the name of Jesus, I diligently ask this of You, O Lord God, Amen and Amen. †††††††††††††††††††††††††† In His Love and Service, Bill Dorman (John 13:34-35) Feel Free to share this or any message I post if God Leads you to.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:43:40 +0000
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