Where Is My Reward

I heard a comment about an individual who had spent some time on the mission field, and is now having financial difficulty in settling back into life at home.

The comment was, "They say "whatever the Lord wants," but the attitude is "why me?" and "where is my reward?"

My first thought was that there is nothing wrong with wanting a reward. And there isn"t. Jesus promised rewards, the prophets of old promised rewards, the apostles promised rewards. I just can"t see anything wrong with wanting rewards.

But…

So often when we get that attitude of "where is my reward?" it is because we"ve gotten ourselves in a bind by making a sacrifice the Lord never asked us to make. As an example, let"s suppose that this couple went to a foreign country as missionaries because that was what they wanted to do. Hey, it"s a good thing, right? And since it was a good thing, surely it was the right thing to do, right?

But what if it wasn"t time yet? What if the Lord really wanted him to get a job, buy a house, and have and raise their children? What if the Lord had in fact given that desire, but didn"t intend for them to go until they had grown up a lot more, and didn"t have to worry about their little ones? What if they"re expecting a reward in order to get out of a jam they got into because they made sacrifices the Lord never asked them to make?

For my part, this is a realm I"m just beginning to see and live in. When Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden light, I do believe he meant it. I believe he meant that when it is time for you to have some blessing, you won"t have to bury yourself in debt in order to afford it. I believe he meant that when it is time for you to marry, you won"t have to jump through hoops in order to impress someone enough so they"ll marry you. I believe that no matter what he is calling you to do, you won"t have to sacrifice your peace and joy in order to do it.

But I don"t want any wrong impressions! While his yoke is easy and his burden is light, you do have to be in his yoke to get the benefits of it. That does mean you can"t hang out with everyone you"d like to, or do everything you would like to do. It does mean you"ll make sacrifices, don"t get me wrong.

What I"m thinking is that we often labor beneath our own yoke, making the sacrifices we think are the right ones, and then want the Lord to reward us for doing what He never asked us to do.

Perhaps the best reward for walking in his yoke is that the burden we bear is light. If it"s not, maybe we should question if we"re actually in his yoke.

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