God wins and rewards the faithful

 

An Emoji Devotions for Thu Feb 10, 2022

Topic: God wins and rewards the faithful

by H.U. Wenger

Highlights:

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth. (Zachariah 9:10, compare Isaiah, 11:1-9; 60:1-22)

 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The Heavenly King, who was here in the appearance of an ordinary man, born through a virgin into a normal family, will return as the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. His reign will include the whole world and it will be a thousand years of peace and prosperity. 

The Prophet Isaiah grants us glimpses, on how the glory of God may look like in the coming kingdom: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9) Concerning the country of Israel, which will be considerably larger than we know it today, Isaiah writes: “Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron. Instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and iron in place of stones. I will make peace your governor and well-being your ruler. No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land for ever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor. The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” (Isaiah 60:18-22) 

The Apostle Paul who was caught up in Paradies, tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:4 only that he “heard inexpressible things, things that no-one is permitted to tell.” It must have been just stunning and out of any human experience: “However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love him – these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) We do not know in detail how the coming glory of the faithful followers of Christ will look like, but with 1John 3:1 - 2 we can state for sure:  “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Paul too expresses that the sufferings and the shame we endure as followers of Christ are negligible compared with the future glory. He exclaims: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2. Corinthians 4:16-18) There could be said much more about the glory that awaits the faithful followers of Christ. Let me close with Matthew 10:42 which assures us that nothing remains unrewarded by God: “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, your love and your goodness are beyond my grasp, but I wholeheartedly thank you for who you are and for what you do for me and for my entire fellow Christians. Forgive me the doubts and the complaints I sometimes have and help me to stay close to you and faithful to you in my good and my bad days. To you alone belongs the glory and the praise and my deep thankfulness that you let me and all your followers participate in the glory only you really deserve. Amen