Guest Post by Ray Kingrea of Tree of Life Ministries
Pastor Kingrea writes “The Journey” posts daily via his Facebook page. Follow him on Facebook here.
The JOURNEY – The REWARD – James 1:12 MSG – Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
Are you facing a challenge in your life right now? I’m not talking about trying to decide what blouse or shirt you’re going to wear. I’m talking about a real challenge. The type of challenge that potentially change the course of your life if you don’t follow through with it. The type of challenge that involves, not only your life, but the lives of many others. The challenge that you realize you have to ride out in order to make it through, but the ride is going to be rough and you don’t know how you’re going to hang on.
There is no reward in giving up. You must ride out the challenge in order to get the reward. There are certain challenges that go much deeper and are way more spiritual than we think.
Job could have easily given up and sat there in defeated state at the mercy of three friends who thought his calamity was due to a life of sin. Job refused to give in to their attacking attitudes.
David faced the challenge of giant size proportion in the face off of a giant and the unrelenting attack of jealous crazed king. Rewards are never experienced by people who give up when faced with a “testing challenge”. Meet it “head-on” and “stick it out”. The reward is not just in what you see but it’s also in what receive from God. James says “the reward is life and more life”.
I want my reward from God for sticking it out! The real secret to overcoming? Only the “loyally in love with God” overcome. You have to love God in order to overcome. If you’re in love with anything or anyone else it will fall short of the reward. Only an absolute loyal love for Him will give you the drive and strength to meet the challenge and forge through to stick it out. The reward is only for the loyally in love with Him. Never forget that if you want to overcome.
