The Reward
One can only pretend or hide for so long. To masquerade in one way and in actuality you are another, is to be discovered. There are a lot of pretenders in our society because of gain and opportunities. We must as the church be true to ourselves and our brethren and our society. This is the only way to fulfill our destiny in Christ Jesus.
Pretending is a master task, an art of a trade. It takes great effort and tenacity to pretend to be something that you are not, which can leave you with a dull and void area in your life. How can you be complete and fulfilled if you are pretending that you are something you are not. This is prevalent in the church (Christ’s body) to desire gifts of the Holy Spirit of others that have been ordained before the foundations of the earth for you. It is exacerbating to discover that your gifts and callings have been mocked and put under scrutiny only for the purpose of coveting something that isn’t theirs. It’s an incredible awakening to the mind, body and soul. The coveting of one’s gifts and callings on their lives or lifestyles, is an offense to God almighty in heaven. If God has called you to be a plumber, then you should be a good plumber. If God has called you to be a hairstylist or a waitress then you should be excelling in those areas. If God has called you to be a banker or an investor, engineer, lawyer, or doctor, then you need to concentrate on your profession and excel without condemning or maligning others.
Possessing written documents of your education doesn’t mean that you are more worthy or have a greater purpose than someone who doesn’t have collegiate degree. This is the evidence that God has equipped you to help those who are less fortunate. Most professions that require a lot of education always, in the end, will result to help those precious people of God who are counting on you for your excellent education and degrees to help them in their complex, and often times, depleted lives. God is counting on you too! You must not become complacent with your success and the six figure numbers that accompany it. Your good works will be noticed and rewarded in time.
Success is what you make it. You can be successful as a CEO of an enterprise, or a sole-proprietor of a business. You can also be successful as a housekeeper, or a chemical engineer. All of these positions are to be graciously approached with performance, great skill and knowledge. You say, “Why does one need skill and knowledge to clean a house or facility?” Everything has a strategy, even making a bed. If a housecleaning service does not clean your home or your facility properly, with excellence, then you would want to render their service. Housekeeping services take their work very seriously, with great pride, as does a surgeon performing surgery with their scalpels or a lawyer preparing a case for their clients. One occupation is just as significant as the others. When we create elite settings within our circles this can be good or bad.
It is quite natural that an engineer will have more in common with another engineer, or a florist with another florist. If you are a woman or a man of God, your preference of company will always be with other women and men of God. It is biblical. No one will ever be able to quench your thirst for the Lord like your brethren and the gospel. It doesn’t matter how spiritual a friend or family member are, your heart only skips a beat when you are with other preachers. It is biblical! It is the same for any profession. We all desire to be with our colleagues. This would be the good elitist; someone who never cut themselves off from the rest of the world, always embracing new ideas from others and beholding the future with optimism and great reverence toward God and all men.
To distance yourself from other groups, or social backgrounds, because of status and breeding can be tricky and wrong. This type of behavior can cause you to be arrogant and have swelling contempt toward others, which can have a triple effect on your social outlook and the professional lives of others. This type of outlook on other circles will cause you to reflect on your own accomplishments instead of others, soaring to an enormous, egotistical demise about yourself and other professions. This would be a bad elitist. Everything we do, we should for others. Whether they are great or not great, poor or rich, short or tall, we are all here to serve.
We are called, as a people, to render our services to each other, whether you are a doctor, lawyer, chemist, or landscaper. We are to serve one another with honor and dignity, to make our nation and nations great. We are to be a people united and not divided. God’s heart is to see his people with potential, skills, trades, professions, gifts, and callings blessed, saved or not saved! God loves all men and he wants us to succeed in all that we do. God loves us. Therefore, we are to be true to our callings, social cliques are obsolete, social gathers are what is current. Yes, we are most comfortable with those who have the same social background and education. This is true. You will have more peace with those who share your views and insights, but this doesn’t mean that you look beneath or the other way at a person(s).
There was a teacher’s luncheon to discuss the curriculum for the New Year and a local television journalist was invited to cover the story. The journalist grew dull listening to the numerous stories of children’s education, school trips, and budgets. She was preoccupied with the next stories on the most recent current events in this nation and others. This invitation was given to broaden her horizons in the community. One of the teachers was enlightened by the reporter’s work and asked the reporter to have coffee and talk about it in more depth and they soon became husband and wife. There will be times where God will put us in this type of situation for his glory. God always has a plan, we must yield and stay humble, yet self-assured in our own callings that God has purposed in us.
Never be something that you are not, or strive to do another profession that you know that you are not called or equipped to do. When we get to heaven, God will give every man (mankind) his reward for the work that God has called them to do. If you are pretending to be something that you are not, or coveting someone else’s home, possessions, or careers, this type of behavior disqualifies you for your reward in heaven. If God has called you to be a doctor and you desire to be a lawyer, and you become a lawyer, you will not get your reward in heaven. You will have your salvation but no reward because you did not stay faithful to your calling. If you are a fisherman, then be the best fisherman. Then you will get your reward from God in heaven. God has a divine plan for all mankind and we are a part of it. We must do our part and not others. Let every man be true to his own calling so you can receive your own reward. Amen.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,” (EPHESIANS 4:1).
“ For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (MATTHEW 16:27).
To God Be The Glory,
Helen Trower
