Rewards Require Gratitude

Here is a bible passage that I had to chew on for quite some time… “⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” biblegateway NIV

Before we get into our discussion here are a few research notes I’ve saved.

research : https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2021/10/hebrew-word-study-reward-shillumath-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%AA/

“A common question I get is that over the 450 English translations of the Bible, which translation is the most accurate?  Well, that all depends upon how you view certain words in English.  The Hebrew word gives us an idea, a picture… and it is up to us to determine which English word best fits that picture for our own understanding.”

research : https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/shillumah.html

1. reward, requital, retribution
2. Noun Feminine; NAS Word Usage – Total: 1

“In Hebrew, words are built on “roots”, generally of three consonants. When the root consonants appear with various vowels and additional letters, a variety of words, often with some relation in meaning, can be formed from a single root. Thus from the root sh-l-m come the words shalom (“peace, well-being”), hishtalem (“it was worth it”), shulam (“was paid for”), meshulam (“paid for in advance”), mushlam (“perfect”), and shalem (“whole”).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalom

Berean Literal Bible… https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/53613/what-is-the-reward-hebrews-116-is-talking-about

MacLaren’s Expositions express a similar sentiment:

Ah, brethren! there is no reward comparable to the felt presence in our own quiet hearts of the God who has found us, and whom we have found. And if we have that, then He becomes, here and now, the reward of the diligent search, and the reward of it today carries in itself the assurance of the perfect reward of the coming time. ‘He walked with God, and… God took him.’ That will be true of all of us. There is only one seeking in life that is sure to result in the finding of what we seek. All other search – the quest after the chief good – if it runs in any other direction, is resultless and barren. But there is one course, and one only, in which the result is solid and certain. ‘I have never said to any of the seed of Jacob, seek ye My face in vain.’ If we seek He will be found of us, and so be our Rewarder and our reward.

Research note : A poverty mindset is really about focusing on the scarcity of resources, either real or imagined.

Scarcity of money, jobs, opportunities. What this does is shift the focus from what you actually have to what you don’t have. (accompanied with a comparison against others and their perceived resources that robs you of taking any joy in what you do have)

This in turn makes you feel disadvantaged, as though life has been unfair to you and only you. Focusing on what you do have fuels hope and optimism.

And if we can get ourselves to acknowledge WHO provides hope and optimism we get to experience the rush of… “anticipation”.

When I first would read Hebrews 11:6 I would get stuck on the word “reward” and looking at my life… I would crap all over the un-realized “rewards” I had right in front of me. Wife, kids, job, hobbies, curiosity of mind, interest in many topics, opportunity… life itself.

I was so stricken with a poverty mindset, I had whatever the reverse of joy is, with it being emotionally crippling at times.

I would say to myself, “You have a wife, great kids, a job, hobbies, what is wrong with you?”

I was constantly down in the Mudville dumps with… Ernest Lawrence Thayer, chewing on stale peanuts and cracker jacks.

“Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”

I felt like I was in the game, I felt like I was in the fight, but I could not feel any wins, no base hits, and definitely no home runs… just grinding away, and being ground away by father time.

With the constant gloom of always losing, never having, and the feeling of, “why even try,” hanging over me.

Or as Edgar Allen Poe wrote…

But life is persistent.

And thankfully… so is my LORD.

I have not found my city of gold, no Eldorado for me, and never having hit a home run in my life, I felt like I existed in the rained out innings of Mudville itself, but I have found a moment in the Son, being born again, a child of God, he has shown me that hope is real, anticipating tomorrow is exciting, and as long as it’s called, “Today”, Today is where I need to be focused.

Looking forward… and, looking forward to things, but living now, being alive now!

Jesus is our “rewarder” and “our very great reward”, we all have some “personal issue(s)” to deal with that may cloud over our ability to appreciate what God has already done in our lives, and coming to Him, being aware of Him in our daily lives is, both at once, the simplest thing to do and the hardest thing to do… because we have to spend enough time with Him in order to get to know Him… which in turn allows us to come to trust Him…and once we can trust Him… it gets even scary yet, because He might just give you what you’ve been asking for all these years!

Search your heart, at what point do you find yourself, “Today”, in regards to you and your relationship with Jesus Christ?

How about with His Word? Have any favorite verses? Have any verses that have you stuck?

Like I was on this one?

The Emerging Man: writing to ENCOURAGE, EQUIP & ENGAGE! and offering up “Positivity with Work gloves!”