What A Reward!

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

WHAT A REWARD!

Gen 15:1-6

15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

NIV

We should focus just on the fact that God told Abram that he was his shield and very great reward. Is that not a promise for us as well? We know that God is our shield; he is our protection, our protector against the forces of evil. We know that he clothes us in his armor, which includes the shield of faith.  If we think that our faith is the shield, we are sadly mistaken, for whom do we have faith in? We also know that faith is a gift from God, as he gives every man a measure of faith. So we would have to believe the shield of faith is God himself. He is our shield, but we must stand behind that shield; we must believe in God. First, we should believe that he is our very great reward. We wonder how much we struggle in this life to receive some kind of reward. These earthly rewards could be financially based or emotional, such as recognition, prestige, or being looked up to (pride-based), or success in varied areas of life (self-based). However, the only reward that is worth everything is knowing God, for he is our very great reward. Everything we struggle to obtain in this world will all fade away, vanish, disappear, and literally perish. However, God, our very great reward, is eternal. Secondly, we should note that Abram believed the LORD. The Hebrew does not include the word "in"; it simply states, "Abram believed the LORD." That is the basis of our lives. It may be good to say that we believe in God, or we believe in Jesus, but then many people who do not know God, or who are not living for God, may say they believe in him, but who believes God is the question. If we believe God, then our lives should reflect that fact. We do need to be careful about being distracted and starting to believe other things that we think are important.  Because Abram believed the LORD, he was credited as being righteous. We know that Jesus is our righteousness; therefore, as we are in Christ, we are credited as righteous. What a reward!