But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
--Hebrews 11:6
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
--Hebrews 11:6
By Laura Berrey
I lost my cell phone once. (Actually, I lose it regularly, but this was the one time I really lost it.)
I looked all over for it. It was during my pre-smart phone days, when phones were both dumb and cheap, so it wasn’t a huge hit financially if I didn’t recover it. And it was basically for emergencies only… my getting a text was as likely as stumbling across a swimming hole in the Sahara.
But, still. It was my cell phone. So I dutifully searched for it for a week or two. At first, we tried calling it from my husband’s phone. But the battery must have died, because we never heard it ring from anywhere in the house.
I could live without a cell phone for a while. I had six little children with arms like octopi, so I figured a chubby little toddler had seen it, found it temporarily distracting, and then dropped it somewhere that hopefully didn’t involve water and a seat. It would show up eventually, right? Or if not, no great loss.
I lost a child once too. (Actually, we lost this particular child several times, but the first was the worst.) I had a radically different response to losing my child than I did to losing my cell phone. As soon as I realized he was missing, I went into full-on Mama Bear Mode. And I did not relax that until long after he was found and safely returned to the bosom of his family (i.e., me).
That return occurred with much weeping and hysterically relieved praise to God. I was ready to kill not just the fatted calf, but sundry and all who would dare remove him from me, yea, even from my sight, for the next twenty-four hours or years. “Clingy” doesn’t cover it.
What made the difference in my search methods? The value of the reward.
I would have gladly paid any price for the return of my son, even my own life. But I could afford nonchalance over my cell phone. (Which I found, by the way, one day while changing the sheets on my bed. It had slipped down between the mattress and the bed frame, and there it lay, dead as a doornail. Diligence has its own reward.)
When it comes to seeking God, only those who truly value the reward of finding Him will succeed. In order to seek Him, Hebrews 11:6 says, we must believe that He is (that He, first of all, exists; and secondly, that He is Who He says He is) and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. He lets Himself be found. He, Himself, is the Reward.
I didn’t need a bounty offered to me to prod me to seek my son. Finding him was all the reward I wanted. I was diligent in my search for him because I was desperate.
Be diligent in your search for God. Feel your desperation for Him and let it motivate you.
You will gain a rich Reward.
God, Himself.
