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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Day 9 Choose Surrender: Life's Rewards


In one of our Wednesday night services at church the reading was from Luke 16:19-31, the story of a rich man and a beggar. The rich man lived in luxury and Lazarus, a beggar, would lie at the rich man’s gate longing to eat what was left from the rich man’s table. When the beggar died, the angels took him to sit at Abraham’s side. When the rich man died and was in hell, he looked up and saw Lazarus by Abraham’s side. The rich man asked Abraham to have Lazarus come and quench his thirst.  Abraham replied, by reminding Lazarus that in his lifetime he received good things and Lazarus received bad things. Now Lazarus is comforted in Heaven and the rich man is in in agony.

As I was reflecting on this story, the question that came to my mind was…Are we living well, so we can die well?

When God blesses us, do we take those blessings and keep them selfishly for ourselves, or are we choosing to take those blessings and bless others?

God gave us free will and the ability to make our own choices. He wanted to experience true love from His created...US! He created us for His pleasure and that pleasure wouldn’t be achieved if we were programmed like robots to love Him. God wants our unconditional love.  He wants us to love Him willingly.

How do we achieve life’s ultimate reward? By surrendering our life to Him and living the life He intended us to live.

When I do leadership training and development, we ask leaders…how do you want to be remembered? What leadership legacy do you want to leave?

I think we should ask the same questions as we look to achieve life’s reward of Heaven…How do you want to be remembered? What legacy do you want to leave? And most important, who does He want you to be? What purpose were we sent to achieve?

In the book, Choose Joy: FindingHope and Purpose When Life Hurts, my sister Sara talks about the life goals that she chose for herself. They were goals of how she wanted to live in her spirit and she wished she would’ve made these goals when she was well and able bodied…

To not be ashamed to stand before God.
To fulfill God’s plan by living the best life I can with what I am given.
To be aware and present in every moment.
To love what I have and not yearn for what I lack.
To spread the joy and not the fear
To be intentional in all things.

     Throughout our life, God rewards us with many blessings and the ultimate reward for our life is one day sitting at His right hand. How we live out our life will determine if we achieve life’s ultimate reward.
     
     Surrender your life to Him and you will have life’s ultimate reward with Him.
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