Friday, July 13, 2012

Risk or Reward

Hbr 4:2    For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ESV


 

Good news. So much better than bad news. Whenever someone comes to me and says: "I have good news and I have bad news, what do you want first?" I tend to accept the bad news first. Why? Because the good news heard later is so much better. The good news later seems to override what I have just heard and I can dwell on the good and not the bad.


 

The children of Israel had a type of gospel (good news) preached to them. What was it? There is the promised land. Go get it. Go in it. Go after it. Win it. It is yours. The land flowing with milk and honey is for you. Now...go. The problem, they didn't believe it. They were more concerned with what 10 spies told them than what 2 spies could tell them they could do. They were more concerned about the risk than the reward. As a result, they let doubt, they let unbelief control and they stayed in their comfort zone in the desert, while the whole time, just a few miles away they could have lived in the land that God had promised them.


 

How does this relate to me? Well, I have had good news come to me as well. The good news the news of my promised land. The good news is that Jesus came, died, rose again, ascended into heaven so that I could someday go into that promised land. The good news is that I can now live a life of faith...faith that this world is not my home. Faith that my focus should be the kingdom of God not the kingdom of this world. Faith that should allow me to takes steps that include some risk because I know my eternal destiny through Christ. The question is whether I am willing to believe. Whether I am willing to marry faith with action. Whether I am more concerned with risk or reward.


 

The good news is this...that Jesus saved me for an eternal promised land, but the good news does not end there. My eternity is what I am living now. My eternal life began at the point of my salvation. I need to live like it.